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.

Friday, April 25, 2014

Higher California Payrolls

Wage and salary payments represent the core of personal income taxes in California, which in turn are the state’s primary financial resource.  The recovery in jobs and earnings is giving the state’s revenue coffers a welcome fill-up.

Based on the total of all entities in California with payrolls (including government agencies, but not single proprietorships), wages and salaries totaled nearly $210 billion in the second quarter of 2013.  For the total year, payrolls probably approached $900 billion.

Last year’s gain in total payroll dollars was probably around 4.8 percent based on the latest available data.  This followed the 6.0 percent jump for all of 2012 and was in stark contrast to the 5.4 percent plunge of 2009.  This volatility points to the need to be cautious in ramping up spending during times of economic rebound and the need to build the state’s reserve fund.

Personal Income Taxes pass $10 Billion mark for April

Personal Income tax revenues hit the $10 billion mark yesterday with actual figures at just under $10.1 billion.  Today’s withholdings are estimated to bring the total to just over $10.1 Billion.  This brings the estimated total for the three revenue sources to nearly $12 billion for the month of April.