The Difference a Day Makes — About $2.8 Billion

California logged more than $2.8 billion in state income tax receipts on April 16 pushing month-to-date collections close to $7.5 billion – less than half way to April’s ’s estimated $16 billion total.

Through April 15^th, income tax collections were just over $4.7 billion in withholding by employers and estimated payments by individuals. Requests for refunds were $1.4 billion.

Unlike the last several budget years, it isn’t a make-or-break situation if the state falls short of its $16 billion projection for April gross collections – $13.3 billion after subtracting refunds.

Gov. Jerry Brown’s Department of Finance reports the state running $5 billion above the revenue estimates in the Democratic governor’s January budget plan.

As the Legislative Analyst says, even if the state nets only $8.5 billion for April in income tax payments, Brown’s budget is still balanced.

Through April 16, $7.5 billion in taxes have paid and $1.5 billion in refunds requests have been filed. That’s a net of $6 billion.  

April is also supposed to yield a net of just under $1.5 billion in bank and corporation tax receipts.

The $568 million in business tax payments received through April 15 nearly doubled in one day to just over $1 billion. Refund requests total $27 million.

The state’s $5 billion cushion comes in large part because tax payments in January were $12.7 billion, $5 billion more than the Brown administration expected for the month.

The Legislative Analyst advanced several possible reasons for the higher-than-expected January collections. April receipts will help determine which, if any, of those theories are correct.

-30-