From the Asbury Park Press:
Income tax revenues 15% below projections
New Jersey’s income tax collections came in 15 percent below estimates in December, although strong business taxes kept the state’s overall revenue for the fiscal half year within one-half of a percent of projections, Treasurer Bradley Abelow said.
The state collected $2.9 billion in total revenue in December, $138 million below its original projections, Abelow said in a statement. Income tax collections for the month totaled $936 million, $159 million below estimates, and the state received $930 million in sales taxes, also down from projections. The declines were partly offset by a 16 percent gain in the corporate business tax to $454 million.
“We saw some offsetting, robust performance in the CBT,” Abelow said in a statement. “Since much of the final estimated payments for the tax year are not fully taken into account until after December, we would expect to have a more complete, two-month view of our income tax position after January’s collections.”
In the fiscal half-year through December, the state received $13 billion in revenue, with the corporate business tax leading collections at $1.1 billion, 18 percent above expectations. Income tax collections totaled $4.2 billion, 4 percent below projections; sales tax receipts were $4.2 billion, or less than 1 percent below estimates.