California State Controller John Chiang offers this daily tax tracker to follow personal income taxes, sales and use taxes and corporate taxes -- the three major sources of revenue for the State.

The site will be updated regularly throughout each business day. Preliminary posts use dollar figures from tax administration agencies, while the following day the Controller will post reconciled (actual cash) figures. The latest figures are always available via direct download. Preliminary sales tax figures, along with personal income tax withholdings will be available by 10:30 a.m., followed by total personal income and corporate tax receipts, along with final sales tax numbers between 1:30 and 4:00 p.m. the same business day.

The chart on the right of this screen tracks the cumulative total of income, sales and corporate tax and compares it against estimated benchmarks for the month.

Thursday, April 10, 2014

$2.0 Billion Mark Passed

Although the numbers are still preliminary, April 10th saw California’s bank account for the month-to-date growing $2.1 billion.  This appears to be a fair start to the monthly forecast of $13.1 billion as the heavy inflow will take place during next week.

Personal income tax receipts are key to California’s fiscal picture.  Through April 10th, they have reached $1.9 billion.  The forecast for the April total is $10.9 billion.

Retail Tax Receipts Catch Up

Tax receipts are recorded net of various refunds that are paid and retail taxes are no exception.  This month refunds were recorded much earlier than expected and have weighed on the total.

The Board of Equalization (BOE) issues refunds on a daily basis to retailers as they reconcile their remittances.  When customers return merchandise, for example, tax receipts are returned to the merchant.

Periodically, refunds issued on a given day can exceed revenues by a large margin.   Such was the case on April 2 in contrast with last year on April 10.  Now, with at least preliminary numbers available this month for the 10th, comparisons came be made.  The result?  April so far is running virtually identical to last year with refunds exceeding payments by about $86 million.  The big refund bulge is now over and we should generally see positive net cash inflows for the balance of the month

April Tax Collections Reach $1.7 Billion

During the first nine days of April, California took in a net $1.7 billion of tax receipts, dominated by $1.8 billion of personal income tax receipts ("net" totals refers to total reciepts minus refunds paid out to taxpayers).  So far this month, sales tax refunds have outpaced tax receipts, but that performance is expected to change before month-end.

For April as a whole, personal income tax receipts will be the dominant force, accounting for more than 80% of the state’s total tax receipts as individuals file their final returns and make their estimated tax payments.