CHARLESTON, W.Va. — It appears the pandemic-delayed July 15 tax deadline day was very good for the state budget.
State Revenue Secretary Dave Hardy said as of Wednesday the state had received $155 million in Personal Income Tax revenue for the first two weeks of July and $51 million in Corporate Net Income Tax collections. He said that’s $82 million above projections.
“Normally July would be a very slow month for us but because all of the income taxes had been deferred then July becomes a very large collection month for us this year,” Hardy said.
Wednesday was the new deadline for individual taxpayers and business owners to file their 2019 returns. Gov. Jim Justice pushed back the normal filing deadline of April 15 three months because of the pandemic. Justice has been predicting the state would bring in anywhere from $180 million to $200 million in deferred tax revenue. Hardy said they are on target.
“On the income tax side, we’ve already received $155 million of it,” Hardy said.
July 15 was also the deadline for the first two payments for estimated income taxes which also helped the state’s numbers, Hardy said.
The Justice administration expects financial struggles in the current fiscal year with the ongoing impact of the pandemic but the revenue boost received at the new deadline was welcomed news, according to Hardy.
“We all know that we’re very, very far from being out of the woods but at least for those of us who have monitoring the state’s finances since early March, it’s good that we made it to July and started to receive the income taxes from 2019,” Hardy said.
‘
Gov. Justice will likely comment on the tax day collections during next media briefing which is anticipated to be held Friday at the state capitol.