State’s fiscal tax collections improve

Missouri’s fiscal 2016 year-to-date general revenue collections edged up 3 percent through February.

As of Feb. 29, collections for the year totaled $5.5 billion, up from $5.3 billion at the same time in fiscal 2015, according to a news release.

For the month of February, sales taxes totaled $484.3 million, a 0.5 percent decrease compared to $486.6 million in the same month of 2015.

Fiscal 2016 gross collections by tax type:
    •    Individual income taxes increased 5.7 percent to $4.3 billion.
    •    Sales and use tax collections improved 3.2 percent to $1.4 billion.
    •    Corporate income and franchise tax collections decreased 8.2 percent to $273.7 million.
    •    All other collections moved up 3.3 percent to $217.9 million.
    •    Refunds rose 15.6 percent to $721.3 million.

Compared to February 2015, last month’s individual income tax collections inched up 0.8 percent; sales and use tax collections increased 6.6 percent; corporate income and franchise tax collections fell 81.1 percent; and all other collections decreased 6.2 percent. Refunds moved up 3.1 percent.

During February, the state’s Office of Administration borrowed $100 million from the budget reserve fund for cash flow purposes. The funds are scheduled to be repaid by the constitutional deadline of May 15, according to the release.