February Tax Collections Exceed Estimate By Nearly 20 Percent, Growth Could Be Short-Lived
The amount of money that came into Idaho’s main bank account in February exceeded expectations by nearly 20 percent. The Idaho Division of Financial Management published its monthly general fund revenue report today.
DFM says February’s receipts beat the forecast because of higher-than-expected revenue in each of Idaho’s main tax categories: individual income, corporate, sales, product and miscellaneous taxes.
Division of Financial Management / State of Idaho
Idaho individual income tax receipts of $27.2 million for the month were nearly twice the projected $14.7 million. Corporate income tax collections also topped expectations, coming in at $3.8 million instead of the predicted $0.9 million. Both of these categories’ strong performances resulted from much lower-than-expected refunds. Sales tax revenues of $77.9 million were $1.1 million (1.4 percent) higher than the forecast amount. Product tax revenue came in slightly above expectations, with receipts at $3.6 million, or 5.3 percent more than projected. Miscellaneous revenue of $5.7 million was nearly twice as high as the forecast of $3.0 million. – Division of Financial Management, March report
February’s tax collections were enough to boost Idaho’s fiscal year-to-date revenue picture 1 percent higher than predicted, from $1.681 million to $1.698 million.
DFM says February revenue was so much higher because fewer people collected tax refunds.
We believe this miss reflects a timing issue. February is traditionally a high refund month, accounting for 23.8 percent of the fiscal year’s refunds. Instead, actual refunds were about 21.7 percent of the fiscal year’s forecast. Refunds not paid out in February have not disappeared, but, instead may lead to higher-than-expected refunds in the remaining months of the fiscal year. – Division of Financial Management, March report
Idaho lawmakers use the general fund reports to gauge how much can be spent on state services, like public schools, road repairs, prisons, and health and human services.
