~ April Revenue Collections Are Up, Including Leading Edge of Final Tax Payments for Tax Year 2011 ~
RICHMOND— Governor Bob McDonnell announced today that April revenue collections rose 10.6 percent over the same month a year ago. April is a significant month for revenue collections. In addition to regular collections of withholding and sales taxes, final payments for tax year 2011 and the first estimated payment for tax year 2012 were due from corporations on April 17. Also, a large portion of estimated and final payments from individuals, which are due May 1, are typically received in April. May, however, normally contains the high income tax returns, therefore April and May payments need to be looked at together.
On a year-to-date basis, total revenue collections have risen 5.9 percent, ahead of the revised annual forecast of 4.6 percent growth. Adjusted for the accelerated sales tax program, state revenues have grown 5.6 percent, ahead of the economic base forecast of 4.7 percent growth.
The April revenue gains compared to last April were driven by strong individual nonwitholding receipts, with all major sources contributing to the growth. These include, individual income tax withholding which rose 2.4 percent, collections of income tax non-withholding which rose 17.5 percent, sales and use tax collections which rose 1.4 percent, and collections of corporate income taxes which rose 1.0 percent. Also contributing to growth was a 4.9 percent decline in income tax refunds issued as compared to last April. This overall 10.6 percent growth rate follows a 7.6 percent growth rate last month.
“With our pro-business policies, low unemployment, and well-managed government, Virginia continues its recovery from the challenging economic period and continues to demonstrate why it is one of the best places in the nation in which to do business and live,” Governor McDonnell said. “Our bipartisan effort enact pro-business policies focused on job creation continues to foster a recovery more robust than elsewhere in the nation. However it remains too soon to celebrate and lose focus on our fragile economy. We must redouble our efforts to ensure our government is running at peak efficiency, and we must continue to aggressively pursue new business investments and job-creation strategies in Virginia to fan the flames of this recovery and put back to work the 250,000 Virginians still in need of good-paying jobs. May and June are also very important months for revenue collections, so we should see more data in the coming months that will confirm whether Virginians can expect this recovery to return us to prosperity again.”
The Commonwealth issued its general fund revenue forecast in December, revising total general fund revenues to grow by 4.6 percent in fiscal year 2012.
The April revenue numbers are available at this link: http://www.finance.virginia.gov/KeyDocuments/RevenueReports/FY2011-2012/2012ReportsList.cfm