Tag: Tax Collections

May Revenue Spike 'Anomaly' According to Secretary Kiss

Tax collections for the month of May were stronger than expected, according to Revenue Secretary Bob Kiss.

In a press release, Kiss said general revenue collections were up 12 percent when compared to those collected in May 2015 and some $28 million above the month’s estimates.

But Kiss said the collections are an anomaly and not a sign that the state’s revenues are bouncing back from a long trend of decline. He attributed the increase in funds to measures taken this year by the governor and the Legislature.

In October, Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin announced mid-year cuts for state agencies of some 4 percent to reduce expenditures.

During both the regular and special sessions, lawmakers approved bills to divert some tax collections from special accounts to the general revenue fund and pull money from the Rainy Day Fund and other one-time accounts to pay the state’s bills through the end of the fiscal year on June 30.

Tax Collections Below Estimates for March

  West Virginia’s Secretary of Revenue Bob Kiss says there were few surprises for the state when it comes to tax collections in March, but not a lot of good news.

March 2016 saw no growth in personal income tax or sales tax revenue collections compared to March 2015. Severance tax collections were also down close to 40 percent compared to the same month in the previous year.

Total tax collections for March came in at just over $300 million, down about 11 percent from 2015. Deputy Revenue Secretary Mark Muchow says that’s about $28.6 million below the estimate for the month, and year to date, collections were nearly $150 million below estimates.

Muchow says the biggest deficit for March was the insurance premium tax, and the bright spot was the sales tax — where collections were 9 percent above prior year receipts, about $100,000 above estimates.

State Tax Collections Fall Behind Estimates

State officials say January’s tax collections provided no signs of an economic turn for West Virginia.

The state collected $374.3 million in revenue last month. Those figures were down $9.8 million from January 2015 and missed estimates by $11.5 million.

Deputy Revenue Secretary Mark Muchow says the numbers continue to look bad in February and March.

The state’s year-to-date tax collection of $2.29 billion is also running $169.5 million below estimates.

Two areas that exceeded estimates in January were sales and personal income tax collections, as the state collected $195.3 million in personal income and $132.6 million in sales taxes.

Muchow went on to say that the lack of economic growth is a result of the lack of employment and wage growth in West Virginia.

W.Va. Revenue Collections Not Meeting Projections

The West Virginia Department of Revenue says revenue collections are more than 17 million dollars below projections in the first month of the new budget year.

The Charleston Gazette reports a variety of taxes came in below estimates in July causing the shortfall. The two biggest sources of tax revenue, consumer sales tax and personal income taxes, both came in below estimates.

Sales tax collections were about one and a half million dollars below estimates, while income tax collections were about 11 million dollars less than projected.

Deputy Revenue Secretary Mark Muchow says the state’s economy needs to grow by about 4 percent in order to balance the state budget by the end of the fiscal year.

W.Va. Tax Collections Up in January

For the first time this fiscal year, state tax collections in West Virginia have exceeded monthly projections.
 
     Deputy Revenue Secretary Mark Muchow tells media outlets that despite the surplus of $8.4 million in January, collections through the first seven months of the fiscal year are $73 million less than anticipated.
 
     Collections in January totaled $391.7 million. Muchow says that included $15 million in taxes that were due Dec. 31 and were posted as January revenue.
 
     Personal income tax collections were about $2.2 million ahead of January’s projections, while sales taxes were $2.3 million below expectations.
 
     Overall, yearly collections are down 1.1 percent compared with the same time a year ago.
 

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