Texas Revenue For FY 2017 And August State Sales Tax Numbers Released

“Revenues in fiscal 2017, especially general revenue-related collections, were right in line with our projections in the Biennial Revenue Estimate released in January…”

(AUSTIN) — Texas Comptroller Glenn Hegar today released totals for fiscal 2017 state revenues, in addition to announcing monthly state revenues for August.

• Sales tax revenue for the year was $28.9 billion, 0.3 percent ahead of the $28.8 billion projected in the January Biennial Revenue Estimate (BRE).
• General revenue-related revenue was $52.3 billion, 1.2 percent ahead of the BRE projection of $51.7 billion.
• All Funds tax collections was $49.6 billion, 0.2 percent less than the $49.7 billion BRE projection.
• All Funds revenue was $111.2 billion, 1.4 percent less than the $112.8 billion BRE projection.

“Revenues in fiscal 2017, especially general revenue-related collections, were right in line with our projections in the Biennial Revenue Estimate released in January,” Hegar said. “As we projected, the Texas economy continued to improve in 2017, which in turn resulted in improved tax collections.”

Hegar also said today that state sales tax revenue totaled $2.48 billion in August, 0.9 percent less than in August 2016.

“The slight decline in August state sales tax revenue was principally due to refunds resulting from our regular auditing process,” Hegar said. “Receipts from most economic sectors grew significantly, but receipts from retail trade remained only at about last year’s level.”

Total sales tax revenue for the three months ending in August 2017 is up 5.5 percent compared to the same period a year ago. Sales tax revenue is the largest source of state funding for the state budget, accounting for 58 percent of all tax collections. Motor vehicle sales and rental taxes, motor fuel taxes and oil and natural gas production taxes also are large revenue sources for the state. 

In August 2017, Texas collected the following revenue from those taxes: 

• motor vehicle sales and rental taxes — $418.8 million, down 7.2 percent from August 2016;
• motor fuel taxes — $305.6 million, down 0.4 percent from August 2016; and
• oil and natural gas production taxes — $271.7 million, up 28.6 percent from August 2016.