Texas Sales Tax Collection April 2016

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May 3, 2016

State Sales Tax Revenue Totaled $2.4 Billion in April

(AUSTIN) — Texas Comptroller Glenn Hegar said today that state sales tax revenue in April totaled $2.38 billion, up 3 percent compared to April 2015.

“Growth in sales tax revenue was led by remittances from the retail trade and construction sectors,” Hegar said. “As expected, receipts from oil and gas-related sectors continued to fall due to the ongoing decline in drilling activity.”

Total sales tax revenue for the three months ending in April 2016 is down 0.8 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 56 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 April 2016, Texas collected the following revenue from those taxes: 

• motor vehicle sales and rental taxes — $250 million, down 31.9 percent from April 2015;*

• motor fuel taxes — $302.9 million, up 3.2 percent from April 2015; and

• oil and natural gas production taxes — $147 million, down 36.1 percent from April 2015.

 For details on all monthly collections, visit the Comptroller’s Monthly State Revenue Watch.

*State motor vehicle sales taxes are remitted to county tax assessor-collectors who in turn remit them to the state. To cover the costs of collecting these taxes, counties are permitted to retain 5 percent of the preceding year’s collections. This tax retention occurs during one month each year and results in lower-than-usual state revenues for the month in which counties retain their 5 percent. Counties retained that amount in April this year, but did so in May last year. This resulted in a sharp drop in April 2016 collections compared to April 2015; whereas May 2016 is anticipated to show a large gain compared to May 2015.

Media Note: To provide greater transparency and eliminate confusion regarding state sales tax revenues and local sales tax allocations, the Comptroller’s office has begun providing one press release announcing state revenues and another announcing local allocations. The release detailing state sales tax revenues will be issued at the beginning of each month, while the release detailing sales tax allocations to local taxing entities will continue as before. All recipients of the former single press release were automatically signed up to receive both releases.