State Revenues Exceed Forecast Again in January

The recently released report on January tax collections shows state revenues at 8.3% more than forecast.
(Published Feb 11, 2013)

On Monday, the Minnesota Department of Management and Budget released a report on tax collections for the month of January. According to the report, net general fund revenues totaled $1.820 billion in January, which is $140 million, or 8.3 percent more than forecast. The report goes on to state that fiscal year-to-date revenues for Fiscal Year 2013 now exceed the November forecast level by $254 million.

Individual income tax collections were $136.9 million more than projected while sales tax collections exceeded the forecast level by $17.5 million. Corporate income tax collections were actually off by $19.8 million while other revenues were slightly higher with $5 million in additional collections over forecast.

The report cautions that all results are preliminary and subject to revision and that monthly revenue variances should be interpreted with caution since some revenue variances may reflect only differences in the timing of receipts or the payment of refunds and not a change in tax liability or underlying economic activity. For example, the report indicates that about 75 percent of the $20 million negative variance in the corporate income tax comes from larger than anticipated January refunds. The large variance in the income tax comes primarily from fourth quarter individual income tax estimated payments due January 15 and probably reflects an acceleration of income into tax year 2012 by high income taxpayers in anticipation of higher federal tax rates in 2013.

Questions? Contact Gary Carlson at (651) 281-1255 or gcarlson@lmc.org.

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