Third quarter local sales tax collections in New York state totaled $4.8 billion, an increase of 6.3 percent over the same period last year, according to a report released today by New York State Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli.

“Local sales tax collections growth increased between July and September, making it the strongest quarter of 2019,” DiNapoli said. “Additional internet sales tax revenue may be a contributing factor, along with the continued rise in consumer spending and wages.”

Overall, year-to-date collections since January totaled $13.5 billion, an increase of 4.3 percent over last year.

Regionally, the strongest growth was downstate with the Mid-Hudson region (5.3 percent) and New York City (5 percent) leading the way. Upstate, only the Capital District had a growth rate that matched the statewide average of 4.3 percent.

Year-to-date sales tax collections grew in 51 of 57 counties, a marked improvement over the growth through June when 15 counties saw declines. Westchester County experienced the highest gain at 7.3 percent and several upstate counties also had fairly robust growth. In particular, Yates County had the highest year-over-year increase at 9 percent.

A few counties had year-to-date declines, but in a number of those cases, including those in Delaware (-4.3 percent), Hamilton (-1.9 percent) and Fulton (-3 percent) counties, these were at least partially due to corrections made by the state Department of Taxation and Finance to collection figures rather than an actual decline in taxable sales activity.

Most of the state’s 61 cities outside of the five boroughs of New York City receive a share of what their respective counties collect, while 17 impose their own general sales tax, of which 14 experienced growth in year-to-date collections.

The report noted that in June of 2019, a new requirement that internet marketplace providers collect and remit New York state and local sales taxes on behalf of their out-of-state vendors took effect.

Read our full report or go to www.osc.state.ny.us/localgov/pubs/research/local-sales-tax-collections-third-quarter-2019.pdf

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