Texas State Sales Tax Revenue Totaled $2.5 Billion In January

“Sales tax collections reflect tepid spending by both businesses and consumers”

Austin — Texas Comptroller Glenn Hegar said today that state sales tax revenue totaled $2.45 billion in January, 0.7 percent less than in January 2016.

“Sales tax collections reflect tepid spending by both businesses and consumers,” Hegar said. “Receipts from the information sector were up, but declines were seen in receipts from the construction and mining sectors, as well as retail trade.”

Sales tax revenue is the largest source of state funding for the state budget, accounting for 58 percent of all tax collections in fiscal 2016. Total sales tax revenue for the three months ending in January 2017 was up by 0.3 percent compared with the same period a year ago.

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 January 2017, Texas collected the following revenue from those taxes: 

• motor vehicle sales and rental taxes — $406.9 million, up 6.9 percent from January 2016;
• motor fuels taxes — $295.7 million, up 1.4 percent from January 2016;
• oil and natural gas production taxes — $248.4 million, up 28.4 percent from January 2016; and
• total tax collections — $3.71 billion, up 2.2 percent from January 2016.