RICHMOND, Va. (WAVY) — While state general fund revenues declined 20.6 percent in May compared to the previous year, the numbers were slightly better than expected.
Gov. Ralph Northam’s office says this is because the individual tax due date was pushed back to June 1 and the impacts of the coronavirus pandemic on payroll withholding and retail sales.
“The restrictions we put in place to protect the health and safety of Virginians during this pandemic resulted in loss of jobs and of income, and our state revenues reflect that,” Northam said. “As our economy slowly begins to open up, we will continue to closely monitor revenue collections and take responsible steps to guide our economic recovery.”
Ordinarily, May is a big month for collecting state revenue. During that month, estimated and final payments for individuals are due by May 1 in addition to regular collections of withholding and sales taxes.
However, the deadline for taxes regularly due between April 1 and June 1was bumped back to June 1.
On a year-to-date basic, revenue collections declined by 1.2 percent. That trails the annual forecast of 3.1-percent growth.
To meet the current official revenue forecast, June collections must total $3.3 billion, which is more than the $2.4 billion collected in June 2019.
Collections of payroll withholding taxes fell 13 percent in May, while collections of sales and use taxes dropped 12.5 percent.
“The month represents a full month of reduction in sales due to numerous store closings during the COVID-19 pandemic,” the governor’s office wrote in a news release.
The report is available here.