Mid-March Tax Collections Outpace Last Year

Run of Soft Collection Changing Complexion of Legislative Session

The Department of Revenue collected more than $2.2 billion in tax revenue during the first half of March, an increase over the same time period in March 2023 as the state looks to break out of the longest streak of below-benchmark revenue months in more than 20 years.

DOR told lawmakers Wednesday that it had raked in $2.236 billion between March 1 and March 15. That’s $59 million or 2.7 percent more than actual collections during the first half of March 2023. Early signs from this month show increases in personal income tax, sales and use tax, and corporate and business tax, partially offset by a decrease in the “all other” tax category, DOR said.

The monthly benchmark for March, which DOR said is usually “a mid-size month for revenue collections, ranking sixth of the 12 months in eight of the last 10 years,” is set at $3.935 billion. That would be $52 million more than what was collected in March 2023. DOR is due to report revenue collections for the full month by Wednesday, April 3.

From the start of July through February, DOR had collected $23.467 billion — $186 million or 0.8 percent less than actual collections during the same eight-month period of fiscal 2023 and $275 million or 1.2 percent less than what the Healey administration projected in January that it would have hauled in by this point in the calendar.

The run of soft collections has altered the complexion of the legislative session by forcing Gov. Maura Healey and Democrats in the House and Senate to reckon with a revenue base that’s not living up to the spending appetites established in recent years.