Census Bureau Releases 2015 Survey Of State Government Tax Collections

The U.S. Census Bureau has released the 2015 State Government Tax Collections

State government tax revenue increased 4.8 percent, from $875.0 billion in fiscal year 2014 to $916.5 billion in 2015 ? the fifth consecutive increase, according to the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2015 Annual Survey of State Government Tax Collections.

Income taxes drove most of the growth, accounting for $27 billion of the $41 billion increase, from $360.1 billion to $387.2 billion, or 7.5 percent.

The 2015 Annual Survey of State Government Tax Collections provides a comprehensive look at state governments and contains statistics on the tax collections of all state governments, including receipts from compulsory fees. State governments and businesses have been using these statistics since 1951 to make policy and investment decisions.

Revenue statistics are broken down into 25 subcategories, such as motor fuel taxes, amusements taxes and hunting license taxes. Tax revenue statistics also include related penalty and interest receipts of the governments.

Other highlights:

• Corporate income taxes rose to $49.1 billion in 2015, from $46.9 billion in 2014, or 4.7 percent, while individual income taxes rose to $338.1 billion, from $313.2 billion, or 7.9 percent.
• Severance taxes decreased 29.1 percent, from $17.8 billion to $12.6 billion. Much of this decrease was due to a decline in oil extraction.
• States that showed the largest revenue decreases in severance taxes were all major oil producers: 

•    Alaska: Decrease of 95.7 percent, from $2.5 billion to $0.1 billion.
•    Texas: Decrease of 33.4 percent, from $6.0 billion to $4.0 billion.
•    Oklahoma: Decrease of 18.1 percent, from $679.4 million to $556.5 million.
•    Louisiana: Decrease of 15.2 percent, from $862.2 million to $731.3 million.
•    North Dakota: Decrease of 13.5 percent, from $3.3 billion to $2.8 billion.

The severance tax decreases caused total tax collections to decrease in the following states:

• Alaska: Decrease of 74.6 percent, from $3.4 billion to $0.9 billion.
• North Dakota: Decrease of 6.2 percent, from $6.1 billion to $5.7 billion.
• Texas: Decrease of 0.1 percent, from $55.1 billion to $55.0 billion.
  

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These statistics do not include employer and employee assessments for retirement and social insurance purposes. Also excluded are collections for the unemployment compensation taxes imposed by each of the state governments. These statistics include tax collections for state governments only; they do not include tax collections from local governments.