Kansas tax revenue, March 2021

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For March 2021, Kansas tax revenue was 12.7 percent greater than March 2020. Over the nine months of the current fiscal year, revenue is 14.0 percent higher than at the same point of the previous year.

Tax reports from the State of Kansas for March 2021 show tax revenues rising from the previous month, and also higher than the same month the prior year. Also, after one year of pandemic, we know how it affected tax collections.

When reporting on Kansas tax collections, the comparison is usually made to the estimated collections. Those estimates were revised in April 2020 based on economic conditions affected by the response to the pandemic. To get a feel for the effects of the response to the pandemic, it is best to compare to the same month the prior year.

(The estimated revenue figures are still important because the state budget is based on them. If the actual revenue is much below the estimated revenue, there may not be enough income to pay expenses.)

For March 2021, individual income tax collections were $255.1 million, up by 3.2 percent from the prior March. Retail sales tax collections rose by 8.2 percent to $194.2 million. Total tax collections were $590.1 million, up 12.7 percent from the same month the prior year. A nearby table summarizes.

For fiscal year 2021, which started on July 1, 2020, total tax collections are up by 14.0 percent over the same period of the previous fiscal year. A large reason for this is the change in tax deadlines from April to July, shifting much revenue from fiscal year 2020 to fiscal year 2021. That hasn’t always been explained, as I show in In Kansas, explanations for tax collections may vary.

As can be seen in a nearby table, tax revenue for fiscal year 2021 is $740.6 million greater than at the same time in the previous fiscal year. Of this, $534.9 million, or 72.2 percent, is due to the increase in individual income tax revenue.

One year of pandemic

The response to the pandemic started in March 2020. We have 12 months of pandemic-affected tax collection data. How does this period compare with the same period one year prior? This is an important question.

A nearby table shows tax collections for two periods of twelve months ending in March 2020 and March 2021. We can easily see the effect of shifting the tax due date from April 2020 to July 2020. Over each period, however, tax collections were nearly the same. The difference of $21.9 million is 0.28 percent. That is the effect of the pandemic on Kansas tax collections for one year.

My report on tax revenue for April details some changes made by the estimating group.

My interactive visualization of Kansas tax revenue has been updated with this data. Click here to use it.

The governor’s press release for this data is at Kansas’s March Total Tax Collections $66.7 Million Ahead of Previous March.

Example from the visualization. Click for larger.