by Vivian Jones
Tennessee tax revenue exceeded the state’s budget estimate by $129.5 million in November, continuing a four-month streak of positive revenue after declines in April, May and June.
The Tennessee Department of Finance and Administration said overall state revenue in November was $1.1 billion – nearly 2% more than a year ago. In the first four months of the fiscal year, tax revenue collections exceeded budgeted estimates by $576 million.
“The good news is that we are in a positive position relative to the state’s budget and we intend to keep our spending in line with revenue collections while continuing to maintain citizen services,” Finance and Administration Commissioner Butch Eley said in a statement Monday. “We will continue to plan for the worst and hope for the best.”
Sales tax revenue grew at a rate of 7% in November, boosted by the first collection of state sales tax on online purchases.
Gov. Bill Lee signed legislation earlier his year allowing the state to collect sales tax on online purchases – a tax that already was levied by law but had not previously been collected. The state started collecting sales tax Oct. 1 on online purchases through marketplace facilitators such as Etsy and Amazon that make more than $100,000 in sales to Tennessee customers.
November collections included the first revenue from the now-collected tax, accounting for about 3% of sales tax growth, according to the department.
Revenue from the Hall income tax on interest and dividends in November came in $600,000 less than the budgeted estimate. The Hall income tax is set to be eliminated completely at the end of the year.
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Vivian Jones reports on Tennessee and South Carolina for The Center Square. Her writing has appeared in the Detroit News, The Hill, and publications of The Heartland Institute.
The state gets its pound of flesh no matte how hard people may have it. I am taking a lot of my shopping to Kentucky to save of sales tax. The Hall Tax should have been ended years ago. The liars in he legislature claimed they would end it to entice people to support the obscene IMPROVE Act tax increase on gasoline and diesel. The lie was that the Hall Tax was already scheduled to be phased out. I am opposed to collecting sales tax for online purchases. The least that should be done there would be to use a reduced tax rate.
clarify- do the votes collected in georgia from drop boxes before 10/28 count?
This tax revenue is good news to Mayor Cooper. He thinks Tennessee taxes are too low which is why he won’t back down from the 34% property tax increase for Nashville. How else do think he is going to fund his left leaning pet projects?