- Massachusetts Department of Revenue
Tuesday, February 1, 2011
Robert R. Bliss
blissr@dor.state.ma.us
617-626-2369
Collections are $28 million above revised benchmark and up $1.091 billion from a year ago
Revenue Commissioner Navjeet K. Bal today announced that preliminary revenue collections for January 2011 totaled $2.053 billion, up $208 million or 11.3 percent from last January.
Total tax collections for the month and the fiscal year were $28 million above the revised monthly and year-to-date benchmarks based on the upwardly revised FY11 revenue estimate of $19.784 billion issued by the Executive Office for Administration and Finance last month. FY11 year-to-date (YTD) tax collections total $11.649 billion, up $1.091 billion or 10.3 percent from the same period in FY10.
January has historically been one of the three largest tax collection months of the year as withholding payments continue to reflect end-of-calendar-year bonuses, final income tax estimated payments are due by the end of December, and sales tax collected on December holiday spending is remitted to the state.
"January continued the trend of strong collections and economic recovery seen this fiscal year. Withholding collections, income tax estimated payments and sales tax collections all exceeded the upwardly revised benchmark, while income tax cash refunds were below benchmark and corporate tax collections were just shy of benchmark," Bal said.
January withholding collections totaled $938 million, up $124 million or 15.2 percent from January 2010, $1 million above the newly revised January benchmark. FY11 YTD withholding collections total $5.535 billion, up $396 million or 7.7 percent from the same period in FY10.
January income tax cash estimated payments totaled $480 million, up $44 million or 10.0 percent from January 2010, and were $17 million above the revised monthly benchmark. FY11 YTD income tax cash estimated payments total $1.199 billion, up $239 million or 24.9 percent from the same period in FY10, which may be an indicator of an increase in capital gains revenue, Bal said.
Income tax cash refunds of $56 million for the month were down $22 million or 28.3 percent from a year ago, $22 million below the revised monthly benchmark. YTD FY11 income tax cash refunds of $272 million are down $106 million or 28.0 percent below benchmark. Bal said this performance may be partly attributable to the IRS delaying the filing of federal tax returns with deductions to mid-February (in order to incorporate new Federal tax law changes into tax forms and tables). If so, the pace of payment of income tax cash refunds is expected to increase in future months.
January is the largest sales tax collection month of the year, as sales tax from December holiday season purchases is remitted to the state. January sales tax collections totaled $477 million, up $28 million or 6.1 percent from January 2010 and were $8 million above the revised benchmark. FY11 YTD sales tax collections total $2.969 billion, up $290 million or 10.8 percent from the same period in FY10.
January is a relatively small month for corporate/business tax collections. January 2011 corporate/business tax collections totaled $51 million, down $3 million or 5.3 percent from January 2010 and $5 million below the revised benchmark. FY11 YTD corporate/business tax collections total $984 million, up $55 million or 5.9 percent from the same period in FY10.
FY2011 Year-to-Date Tax Revenue through January 31, 2011
January 2011 Tax Collection Summary (preliminary as of February 1, 2011)
