by Dave Williams | Oct 8, 2021 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA – Across-the-board increases in tax collections fueled a 30.2% jump in state tax revenues last month over September of last year, the Georgia Department of Revenue reported Friday.
In a sure sign of continued economic growth, individual income taxes were up 13.2%, driven up by a huge increase in tax return payments of 88.1% coupled with a 17% decline in tax refunds.
With Georgia’s economy fully reopened by last month, net sales tax collections soared by 104.8% compared to September 2020, when the economic impact of the coronavirus pandemic was being felt to a much greater degree.
Corporate tax receipts also rose substantially, by 50.4%, despite a large increase in refunds issued by the revenue agency.
With a lot more Georgians driving last month than in September of last year, motor fuel tax collections by 9.1%.
During the first three months of the current fiscal year, state tax receipts rose by 14.6% over the first quarter of fiscal 2021.
The robust start to fiscal 2022 comes after the state closed out the last fiscal year at the end of June with a $3.7 billion surplus.
Those healthy finances likely will prompt Republican legislative leaders in the General Assembly to push for finishing the two-stage income tax cut they promised in 2018. Democrats argue the state can afford to spend more on health care and education after a period of austerity during the early stages of the pandemic.
The 2022 session of the General Assembly begins in January.
This story is available through a news partnership with Capitol Beat News Service, a project of the Georgia Press Educational Foundation.
