Commonwealth Magazine: "Despite pandemic, state tax revenues hold steady"

From CommonWealth Magazine we share an article of interest for Franklin: 

"DESPITE A PANDEMIC and record unemployment, Massachusetts tax revenues in August continued to hold fairly steady compared to last year.

The Massachusetts Department of Revenue reported on Friday that an apples-to-apples comparison shows tax revenues in August 2020 were down only $7 million, or .4 percent, compared to the same month a year ago.

For July and August, the first two months of fiscal 2021, revenues were actually up by $124 million, or 3.1 percent, compared to the same period a year ago.

The apples-to-apples approach is required because the state’s tax filing date for 2019 was postponed from April 15 to July 15 this year because of COVID-19. That delay meant a lot of revenue that normally would have come into state coffers in fiscal 2020 actually arrived in fiscal 2021. The Revenue Department separated out what it considered fiscal 2020 money from fiscal 2021 money, yielding the apples-to-apples comparison."

Continue reading the article online (subscription may be required) 
https://commonwealthmagazine.org/state-government/despite-pandemic-state-tax-revenues-hold-steady/

The golden dome of the State House. (Photo by Andy Metzger)