Tax revenues in January
jumped 32% over year ago

Officials attribute the increase
to a double "weekend effect"
and earlier business payments

The state's total tax take for the fiscal year so far is up 16 percent over the same period last year, state tax officials said yesterday.

The state collected $416.9 million in January, about $193.6 million of that from excise taxes collected on all sales of goods and services, the state Department of Taxation said.

That's more than 30 percent higher than January 2004's take of $315.1 million, but state Tax Director Kurt Kawafuchi says the increase is largely due to a double "weekend effect."

Because Jan. 31, 2004, fell on a Sunday, many businesses didn't pay their taxes until Feb. 1, and because Dec. 31 was a state holiday, many December taxes also were counted last month.

The state is no longer making monthly comparisons in its releases. Instead it compares the cumulative tax totals, the amounts collected from the start of the fiscal year on July 1 to the end of the last month, in this case Jan. 31.

The cumulative total, from July through the end of January, was $2.25 billion, 16 percent higher than the same period last year. General excise tax collections were $1.2 billion, 13.6 percent more than the same period last year.

Withholding for individual income tax was higher than normal last month -- $140 million versus $90 million, because of a new law that cuts the deadline for medium and large businesses to pay from 40 days to seven days, to conform with federal law, Kawafuchi said.