Tax collections hit the highest total monthly total ever in April, with $817.4 million of general fund revenue coming in last month.
Revenues exceeded April 2012 totals by $99 million and beat the official forecast by $88 million, the Department of Finance and Administration said last week.
Collections last month exceeded the previous monthly high of $718 million set in April 2012 by almost 14%.
Finance director Richard Weiss, who is the state’s chief financial officer, said the increase was due to an unexpectedly large number of individual income tax filings. Many high-income earners who filed early to avoid higher federal taxes at the beginning of 2013, he said.
“Our forecast is still good, but we got a big influx of money that was not anticipated,” Weiss said at a news conference unveiling the April figures. “We got a big April surprise.”
The April revenue report said some of the filings would normally occur in May.
“Larger-than-anticipated payments with filing extensions and returns received in April for tax year 2012 resulted from taxpayer strategy and improved business earnings,” the report said.
Individual income tax collections totaled $586.3 million in April, beating the forecast by $100 million and exceeding April 2012 collections by $102 million.
Sales and use tax collections of $174 million were $12 million less than expected.
Net general fund revenues in the first 10 months of fiscal 2013 total $4.15 billion, some $164 million more than expected.
