|  TRENTON — State
Treasurer John E. McCormac announced today that State revenue collections
for March 2004 totaled $1.985 billion, approximately $140 million
or 7.6 percent above budget projections for the month.
Sales Tax collections for the month yielded $561.2 million, which
is $43.2 million (6.3 percent) ahead of projections, while collections
from the Corporation Business Tax totaled $208.7 million, $96.4 million
above estimates. Higher-than-anticipated collections from these two
revenues more than offset lower-than-estimated monthly collections
from the Gross Income Tax. GIT revenues totaled $332.2 million in March,
which is $42.7 million under target. Treasurer McCormac noted that
the GIT collection number appears to be artificially low due to the
influence of speedier-than-anticipated tax return and refund processing
by Division of Taxation.
“Our FastFile programs, which offer taxpayers electronic filing
options, help facilitate quicker and more accurate processing of returns,” Treasurer
McCormac said. “To date, we have realized a twenty percent increase
in the number of electronic submissions received as compared to the
same time frame last year. And overall, we are doing a tremendous job
of getting money back to taxpayers quickly when they are entitled to
a refund,” he said.
“The fluidity of the tax filing and refund cycle during this
time of year makes it difficult to fully assess monthly Gross Income
and Corporation Business Tax collections,” the Treasurer added. “We
have used conservative estimates in forecasting revenues for the balance
of the current fiscal year and FY 2005. We will continue to monitor
our revenues closely and will have a clearer understanding of our fiscal
picture after all the envelopes are opened by the middle of next month.
We are gratified that New Jersey’s revenue stream remains strong
and that our estimates remain on target, ” he said.
The Treasurer will present updated revenue collection and estimate
information for FY 2004 and FY 2005 when he testifies before the Senate
and Assembly Budget committees at the end of May.
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