State sales tax revenue totaled $3.4 billion in July

AUSTIN — Texas Comptroller Glenn Hegar yesterday said state sales tax revenue totaled $3.39 billion in July, 13.5 percent more than in July 2020. The majority of July sales tax revenue is based on sales made in June and remitted to the agency in July.

“July state sales tax collections again strongly surpassed both year-ago and pre-pandemic levels, with continued vigorous growth from non-retail sectors,” Hegar said. “The sharpest increase from a year ago was in receipts from oil and gas mining, as the higher crude oil prices of recent months support increased drilling activity, albeit still well below the pre-pandemic pace.

“But receipts from retail trade sectors continue to be the most highly elevated, as resurgent consumer spending following the lifting of pandemic-related restrictions and supported by increasing employment, federal income support policies, and low-interest rates does not appear to have begun to slow. Within retail trade, the greatest growth in receipts from a year ago was from clothing and clothing accessories stores and electronics and appliance stores – retailers especially hard hit by the pandemic. While receipts from sectors that had increased sales following the onset of the pandemic – food and beverage stores, furniture and home furnishings stores, and sporting goods and hobby stores – had no growth compared to a year ago, receipts remain strongly above pre-pandemic levels. And receipts from other retail sectors that grew strongly last year – big box and online general merchandisers and building materials stores – continued to have robust growth.”

Year-over-year increases for most tax revenues continue to be affected by base effects: year-ago revenue collections to which this year’s collections are compared were suppressed by the pandemic.

Year-over-year growth in July sales tax collections, however, is not attributable to such base effects, as sales tax revenue was surprisingly strong in July 2020. Compared to July 2019, sales tax collections were up 18.4 percent.

Total sales tax revenue for the three months ending in July 2021 was up 20.2 percent compared to the same period a year ago and 13.9 percent compared to 2019. Sales tax is the largest source of state funding for the state budget, accounting for 59 percent of all tax collections.

Texas collected the following revenue from other major taxes, most of which were up sharply from a year ago due to base effects:

• motor vehicle sales and rental taxes — $577 million; up 24 percent from July 2020, and up 19 percent from July 2019;
• motor fuel taxes — $315 million, up 4 percent from July 2020, and up 1 percent from July 2019;
• oil production tax — $377 million, up 102 percent from July 2020, and up 21 percent from July 2019;
• natural gas production tax — $187 million, up 408 percent from July 2020, and up 45 percent from July 2019;
• hotel occupancy tax — $60 million, up 79 percent from July 2020, and up 4 percent from July 2019; and
• alcoholic beverage taxes — $132 million, up 20 percent from July 2020, and up 12 percent from July 2019.