Corporate settlement payments and other large, one-time tax payments brought state tax collections up 1.2 percent to $1.87 billion in December.
December’s collections were $55 million above the benchmark set by the state Department of Revenue in October. Without the one-time and corporate settlement payments, the month’s collections would have come in $115 million below the benchmark and $149 million below taxes collected in December 2007.
The department said employee withholding, sales and income tax collections were all down compared to Dec. 2007 and below the department benchmark.
Income tax collections fell 4.9 percent, or $51 million, to $991 million in December compared to the same month a year ago.
Year-to-date, the department has collected $9.1 billion in taxes, a $68 million decrease from the same period a year ago.
