April Tax Collections Drop by More Than Half Compared to Last Year

Impact of COVID-19 on Tax Collections Becomes Evident

The City collected approximately $287.1 million in General Fund tax revenue in April of FY2020, compared to $639.7 million in April FY2019, a decrease of approximately $352.6 million, or 55.1 percent, according to preliminary figures. As shown in Table 1, every one of the City’s major tax types saw decreases in April except the City sales and beverage taxes, which saw moderate and slight increases, respectively. The City portion of the wage, earnings, and net profits taxes decreased by $14.6 million or -8.2 percent. The rest of the decreased tax types did so by double digits, including the business income and receipts (“BIRT;” -80.5 percent), real estate (-52.1 percent), realty transfer (-65.4 percent), parking (-50.0 percent), amusement (-91.9 percent) and other miscellaneous (-35.1 percent) taxes. Whereas March collections showed only the beginning of the decline in tax revenue due to COVID-19, the impact has become fully clear in April as tax revenues declined by more than half compared to last year. Two months remain in the current fiscal year.  

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