By Rachel Whitten
July 30, 2010

(KansasReporter) TOPEKA, Kan. – Kansas’ July tax collections fell $424,000, or 0.1 percent short of projections, revenue officials said Friday.

State officials estimated collections would total $379.3 million in the first month of the state’s new fiscal year; but the totals Friday hit a whisker-smaller $378.9 million.

“I don’t think you could get much closer with the estimates than they did, they really did a pretty darn good job when you look at how many millions they have to look at,” said Freda Warfield with the Kansas Department of Revenue. But Steve Stotts, director of taxation for the Revenue Department said the revenue numbers for July and August aren’t as important as quarterly numbers that come out in September.

“It’s just the first month of the [fiscal] year, so we always caution people not to put a lot of stock in the numbers the first month, you have to look at the first quarter, it just gives you a better idea of where we’ll stand,” Stotts said.

September’s numbers will be more important because that’s when individuals and corporations make their first quarterly estimated income tax payments of the new fiscal year..

“In July and August, those two months are withholding and sales tax months. September is the month were you get estimated payments from individuals and corporations, that’s why you need to wait until then to have any idea of the actual number compared to estimates,” Stotts said.

Even though July is a “sales tax month,” that was one category that came in under estimates. The state collected $145.7 million, or 1.5 percent less than the estimated $148 million.

Individual income tax collections, historically the state’s largest income source, totaled $181.1 million, 0.6 percent or $1.1 million higher than projected.

“Our receipts for July demonstrate yet another positive signal that our state’s economic recovery is well underway,” said Gov. Mark Parkinson. “While we will continue to watch monthly revenues closely, it appears the Kansas economy is stabilizing.”

Corporate franchise tax collections of $844,000 were more than double their $400,000 estimate. Cigarette taxes reached $8.3 million, about 4 percent above the $8 million estimate.  

July’s total $378.9 million tax revenues topped year earlier $344.3 million total by 10 percent.  That’s because last year, the Revenue Department had to hold about $31 million in refund checks because there wasn’t enough cash to cover them all.