State Tax Decline in Early 2009 Was the Sharpest on Record

Publication Date: July 2009

Publisher: Nelson A. Rockefeller Institute of Government

Author(s): Donald J. Boyd; Lucy Dadayan

Research Area: Banking and finance

Keywords: Corporate tax; Withholding; Sales Tax

Type: Report

Coverage: United States

Abstract:

Tax data tend to be noisy and require careful interpretation. This is particularly true of data for the January-March quarter, the focus of most of this report. While we report data from the Census Bureau in Tables 8, 9, 10, and 11, throughout much of the discussion that follows we describe tax revenue growth or declines after reflecting adjustments that we believe are essential for proper interpretation. Since early data from the second quarter of 2009 indicate further widespread declines in revenue, we also provide an initial look at currently available reports, which represent tax revenue data for 45 states for the April and May months.