TENNESSEE DEPARTMENT OF REVENUE PROVIDES ANALYSIS OF
MAY 2007 COLLECTIONS

NASHVILLE, Tenn. – May 2007 collections of the Tennessee Department of Revenue were $792,142,030, an increase of $9,113,953 or 1.2 percent over May 2006 collections.

Sales and use tax collections were $548,475,554, up $16,181,121 or 3.0 percent over May 2006 collections. The retail trade group was up 1.6 percent over collections from last year. Contributing to the rise were eating and drinking places (up 5.5 percent), miscellaneous retail stores (up 6.1 percent), auto dealers and service stations (up 3.1 percent), and furniture stores (up 8.6 percent). Collections from apparel and accessories stores (down 25.6 percent) were affected by the sales tax holiday in April. Sales tax receipts from the services group were up 5.2 percent with increases relatively evenly spread across the group. Collections from the non-retail, non-services group were up 8.1 percent where increases in the transportation (up 238.3 percent), communications (up 5.7 percent) and wholesale trade (up 8.6 percent) sectors provided most of the gain. Declining collections in the manufacturing sector (down 9.7 percent) offset some of the gains in the non-retail, non-services classification. Consumer use tax collections were up 78.3 percent over collections in May 2006.

Franchise and excise tax collections were $41,037,299, down $16,501,698 or 28.7 percent when compared to May 2006 collections. Separately, franchise tax collections were $21,308,054, down $343,675 or 1.6 percent from last year. Excise tax collections were $19,729,245, down $16,158,023 or 45.0 percent from May 2006 collections.

Inheritance, estate and gift tax collections of $11,539,334 in May 2007 surpassed May 2006 collections by $9,448,720 or 452.0 percent.

Individual income tax collections were $9,298,750, an increase of $4,134,621 or 80.1 percent when compared to the same period one year ago.

Business tax collections increased $4,093,250 from last year’s negative total to $1,285,893.

TVA in-lieu-of tax payments were $21,114,561, surpassing last year’s collections by $2,770,308 or 15.1 percent.

Privilege tax collections were $47,482,081, a decline of $3,739,179 or 7.3 percent from last May.

Motor vehicle registrations declined $2,399,936 or 10.1 percent from last year’s levels to $21,372,140.

Tobacco tax collections were $9,220,311, a decrease of $2,074,202 or 18.4 percent from May 2006 collections.

Gasoline tax collections were $51,588,508, a 3.1 percent or $1,651,766 decline from collections in the same period last year.

Motor vehicle fuel tax collections of $13,589,879 represented a $1,265,516 or 8.5 percent decline from May of last year.

The Department of Revenue is responsible for the administration of state tax laws and motor vehicle title and registration laws established by the legislature and the collection of taxes and fees associated with those laws. The Department of Revenue collects approximately 92 percent of total state tax revenue. During the 2005-2006 fiscal year, the department collected $10.3 billion in state taxes and fees. In addition to collecting state taxes, $1.8 billion of local sales tax was collected by the department for local governments during the 2005-2006 fiscal year. Besides collecting taxes, the department enforces the revenue laws fairly and impartially in an effort to encourage voluntary taxpayer compliance. The department also apportions revenue collections for distribution to the various state funds and local units of government. To learn more about the department, log on to www.Tennessee.gov/revenue.

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