Oklahoma income tax collections up 10%

Rising income tax receipts helped lift Oklahoma tax revenue collections in January to 10.2 percent more than the same month a year ago, state finance officials said Tuesday.

Income tax collections to the general revenue fund, the state’s main operating fund, were $578.3 million in January, the highest monthly total for the first seven months of the current fiscal year. The amount is an increase of $53.4 million, or 10.2 percent, compared with last January.

Income tax collections are outperforming expectations by double digits through the first seven months of this fiscal year, which began July 1, said state Finance Secretary Preston Doerflinger.

“Sales taxes also are performing well,” he said. “These figures are evidence of continued economic expansion.”

Gov. Mary Fallin said the double-digit revenue growth of income tax collections is a sign that Oklahoma’s economy is headed in the right direction and that she intends to pursue “a measured, responsible tax cut in 2013.”

Fallin asked legislators last week to consider cutting the top rate of the state’s personal income tax rate by 0.25 percent, dropping it from 5.25 percent to 5 percent. A quarter-percent reduction would cost the state about $40 million in the 2014 fiscal year and about $120 million annually when fully implemented.

In January, combined personal and corporate income tax receipts totaled $281.5 million, beating collections from the previous by $46.1 million or 19.6 percent, according to the state Office of Management and Enterprise Services, which compiles the revenue reports. Individual income tax collections reached $255.9 million for the month, exceeding the total for January 2012 by 20.2 percent and the estimate by 21.1 percent.

Doerflinger said sales tax collections for the first seven months of this fiscal year have increased from a year ago by 6.8 percent and are running 1.4 percent ahead of the estimate for that time period.

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