- Massachusetts Department of Revenue
February 3, 1999
Ann Murphy / Jeffrey Busha
(617) 626-2251
Acting Revenue Commissioner Bernard F. Crowley, Jr. today announced that revenues for the month of January totaled $1.57 billion, an increase of 10.1 percent over January 1998. January collections bring year-do-date revenues to $8.28 billion, up 9.1 percent.
"January is a significant month for tax collections and we can see that performance is strong across the board. We are also issuing larger refunds during this tax filing season and we are seeing adjustments being made in withholding tax payments because of tax cuts passed last year which raised personal exemptions," Crowley said.
Income tax collections in January totaled $1.12 billion, up $48.9 million or 4.6 percent over January 1998. Withholding tax collections totaled $617.9 million, an increase of $29.8 million or 5.1 per cent. Corporate tax collections totaled $17.0 million, down $12.0 million or 41.4 percent. Sales and use tax collections totaled $315.4 million, up $118.3 million or 60.0 percent. This increase is largely due to the change made one year ago in the frequency in which businesses report sales and use tax. Adjusting for the change, sales and use tax growth is between 10 and 15 percent.
Year-to-date income tax collections total $4.88 billion, up $387.8 million or 8.6 percent. Withholding tax collections total $3.95 billion, an increase of $297.3 million or 8.1 percent. Sales and use tax collections total $1.93 billion, up $214.6 million or 12.5 percent. Corporate tax collections total $401.4 million, up $25.9 million or 6.9 percent.
The benchmark estimates for fiscal year 1999 have also been revised to reflect the $14.0 billion fiscal year 1999 forecast in House 1 which was released last week
