US State and Local Government Tax Collections Rising Handily

The Census data measured the four largest tax categories in the second quarter of 2015. This $339.2 billion total compared to $317.2 billion in the second quarter of 2014. All four major groups saw tax revenues rise at the state and local level: individual income tax, general sales tax, corporate income tax and property tax revenues.

Individual income tax collections at the state and local level combined were $121.7 billion in the second quarter. That figure was up 13.8% from a year earlier. General sales and gross receipts tax revenues were up 3.9% to $99.9 billion. Corporation net income tax rose by 7.5% to $21.4 billion. State and local collections in property tax rose just over 2% to $96.2 billion, although it was referred to as being “not statistically different.” Local governments collected $92.4 billion of the total property taxes.

When it comes to total state collection, the Census said the following:

Total state tax revenue rose 6.1 percent to $274.4 billion in the second quarter, from $258.6 billion reported in the same quarter of the prior year. Individual income tax, at $111.5 billion, is up 13.4 percent from the same quarter of 2014. The second largest category of state tax revenue, general sales and gross receipts taxes, accounted for $79.5 billion, an increase of 2.9 percent from the same quarter in 2014. At $18.4 billion, corporation net income tax collections increased 6.1 percent from the same quarter in 2014.

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A breakdown of the total state tax revenue, by each category’s share of taxes, was as follows:

• Individual income tax was 40.6% of all taxes.
• General sales and gross receipts taxes were 29.0% of all taxes.
• Corporate net income tax was 6.7% of all taxes.
• Property tax was 1.4% of all taxes.
• Other miscellaneous tax revenue was the remaining 22.3%.

As it is, income taxes and sales taxes hit every U.S. consumer, regardless of home ownership. The chart below shows the Census trends at the state level for general sales and gross receipts and also for individual income tax in the years 2012 to 2015.

There are always exceptions and special considerations that have to be considered in any group of statistics. That being said, it is puzzling that sales and gross receipts taxes and personal income taxes are rising when you keep hearing over and over that wages are not rising.

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