LANSING – Michigan’s major taxes, including Lottery revenues, netted nearly $2 billion in August, a 4.3 percent increase over what the state collected in August 2016, according to figures released Wednesday by the Senate Fiscal Agency.
The increase came despite a big drop in income tax collections in August compared to the same month the year before. For the 2016-17 fiscal year thus far, the income tax is still up compared to the year before but the August drop left it just fractionally higher.
On the other hand, the sales tax saw a significant increase over August 2016.
For the fiscal year the state has collected, with Lottery revenues, $18.448 billion, 2.5 percent more than the total collected during the same time in the 2015-16 fiscal year. Even though the 2016-17 fiscal year ends on September 30, revenues collected in October accrue to the current year, so there are two months left of collections for the current fiscal year.
The total collected in August was some $6.2 million less than estimates for the month, the SFA said.
The income tax collected a net $702.8 million, 10.2 percent less than August 2016. Gross withholdings were off by 9.7 percent and refunds, while down 0.5 percent from the year before, were still higher than forecast.
For the year, the personal income tax has raised $7.76 billion, up 1.6 percent from the year before.
Another tax seeing a big drop in August was the use tax, with collections down by 13.7 percent to $128.2 million. For the full year the tax has raised $1.25 billion, a 3.2 percent increase over the year before.
In terms of percentage drops, however, the insurance tax collected just $4.1 million in August, down a stunning 214.5 percent from August 2016. For the year, however, the tax is up 10.2 percent, netting $267.5 million.
Those declines were offset by a 6.6 percent increase in sales tax collections, which netted $673.1 million in August. For the year, the tax is up 7.2 percent, bringing in $6.457 billion.
The Corporate Income Tax saw collections that were 131.9 percent higher than the year before, bringing in $28.4 million. For the full fiscal year, the tax has netted $858.1 million, up 22.7 percent.
The state’s essential services assessment was up by 33.1 percent, raising $66.1 million. For the year it has raised $83.1 million, up 31.1 percent from the year before. It has already exceeded forecasts for the entire year when it was expected to raise $78 million.
And the category of “other taxes,” which include liquor, beer, estate taxes, utility property and other taxes, was up by 77.3 percent for the month over August 2016, raising $32.7 million. It is down for the year overall, however, raising $245 million, a decline of 7 percent.
This story was published by Gongwer News Service.
