August collections build on record tax haul in Massachusetts

Colin A. Young

BOSTON – The Department of Revenue collected more than $2.6 billion in taxes last month, an increase of $108 million or 4.3 percent over actual collections in August 2021 as fiscal year 2023 continued its strong start for the state’s coffers.

“August collections increased in most major tax types in comparison to August 2021, including increases in non-withheld income tax, sales and use tax, corporate and business tax and the ‘all other taxes’ category. Withholding decreased relative to August 2021 collections. However, FY2023 year-to-date withholding collections are more than collections in the same period of FY2022,” Revenue Commissioner Geoffrey Snyder said. “The sales and use tax increase reflects continued strength in retail sales.”

Through two months of fiscal year 2023, DOR has collected just more than $5 billion, and Massachusetts is running about $250 million or more than 5 percent ahead of the fiscal year 2022 tax collection pace that led to a multibillion-dollar surplus.

Last week, DOR reported to Auditor Suzanne Bump that it believes $2.94 billion from fiscal 2022 tax collections will be required to be returned to taxpayers under the Chapter 62F revenue cap law.

August is generally one of the least significant months for state tax receipts (average of 6.7 percent of annual revenue) and DOR cautioned against drawing conclusions based on the monthly results. But so far, the continued strong pace of tax collections makes fiscal year 2023 appear likely to generate more than the $39.576 billion revenue expectation that the administration and lawmakers agreed to bake into the annual budget.