Today, the Office of the Comptroller released its detail of the June distributions of county income taxes.  According to the electronic message, “The June distribution totals $707.5 million, an increase of 4.5% over last year’s distribution.”  It has three separate income tax components:

• the tentative final distribution for tax year 2009
• the projected April/May withholding and estimated tax receipts for tax year 2010
• the estimated unallocated distribution for tax year 2009 and the reconciliation for the unallocated distribution for tax year 2006

The final distribution also includes the final installments of the disparity grant for fiscal year 2010, which is up 5.1%.

This distribution represents the first reconciling distribution for tax year 2009 returns, reflecting returns processed and posted to the tax system by early June.  At $18.3 million, this distribution is 69.9% above that of last June, despite a 2% overall reduction in the number of returns received as of the same date last year.  In addition, this distribution reflects a reduction of approximately $3.6 million for administrative costs related to the implementation of MITS.  To date, the MITS project has resulted in approximately $55.9 million in additional collections for FY 2009 and FY 2010 that may not have otherwise occurred.

Reconciling distributions can be volatile, as they depend on the prior tax year’s pattern of collections, the current tax year’s distributions, and returns for the current year received by the cutoff date. A modest recovery in 2009 resulted in a significant increase in the distribution compared to 2008.

If you have questions regarding the June 29 distribution, please contact George Freyman of the Revenue Administration Division, at 410-260-7455.