April 19 Tax Collections: Mumm’s But No Dom Perignon Yet

April 19 marked another large haul for state tax collectors as the Franchise Tax Board received $1.1 billion in payments.

Those collections lifted the board’s total April receipts to a hair over $5 billion, — $3.4 billion less than Gov. Jerry Brown’s budget predicts the agency will receive through April 30.

The Democratic governor, who has already acknowledged the budget hole is at least $800 million larger than he estimated in January – about $10 billion – needs April’s tax receipts to at least meet expectations.

If less, the hole deepens. Better than anticipated collections, the hole shrinks.

April is by far the largest month of the year for income tax receipts.

The Democratic governor expects a net total of $9.4 billion in both payments to the tax board and withholding from employee paychecks, which is sent by employers to the Employment Development Department.

 In addition to what the tax board receives, Brown expects the employment department to pocket a little over $3.2 billion.

That $3.2 billion plus the board’s $8.4 billion adds up to gross receipts of approximately $11.6 billion.

Brown’s budget writers also expect there to be requests for refunds of almost $2.1 billion. So far, there are requests for more than $1.9 billion.

Total receipts less refunds equal the month’s net total.

State Controller John Chiang keeps a daily tally of net income tax collections for April. It shows total collections less refund requests to be just under $4.3 billion through April 18.

April is also the third largest month for bank and corporation tax collections. The budget estimates just over $1.5 billion will be paid.

Through April 19, $1.1 billion has been received.

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