TENNESSEE DEPARTMENT OF REVENUE PROVIDES ANALYSIS OF
FEBRUARY 2007 COLLECTIONS

NASHVILLE, Tenn. - February 2007 collections of the Tennessee Department of Revenue were $716,439,845, an increase of $59,442,029 or 9.0 percent over February 2006 collections.

Sales and use tax collections were $509,471,113, up $25,624,620 or 5.3 percent over February 2006 collections. The retail trade group was up 7.3 percent over collections from last year. Contributing to the rise were general merchandise stores (up 15.0%), food stores (up 11.1%), auto dealers and service stations (up 5.3%), miscellaneous retail stores (up 7.3%), apparel and accessories stores (up 20.1%), and eating and drinking places (up 3.5%) Building materials stores (down 3.7%) was the only category experiencing declining collections. Sales tax receipts from the services group were up 3.5 percent with increases by automotive repair and parking services (up 8.4%) leading the group. Collections from the non-retail, non-services group were down 0.1 percent where decreases in communications (down 5.0%) and electric gas and sanitary services (down 6.6%) were partially offset by increased collections in the finance, insurance and real estate sector ( up 975.5%). Consumer use tax collections were down 53.7 percent from collections in February 2006.

Franchise and excise tax collections were $44,199,475, up $27,871,131 or 170.7 percent when compared to February 2006 collections. Separately, franchise tax collections were $14,117,195, up $1,579,798 or 12.6 percent over last year. Excise tax collections were $30,082,279, up $26,291,333 or 693.5 percent over February 2006 collections.

Collections from the privilege taxes were $23,238,036, an increase of $3,371,510 or 17.0 percent over February collections last year.

TVA in-lieu-of tax payments were $21,114,561, surpassing last year's collections by $2,770,308 or 15.1 percent.

Motor vehicle registrations were $24,665,512, an increase of $2,308,012 or 10.3 percent over February 2006 amounts.

Gasoline tax collections were $48,685,661, a 3.8 percent or $1,774,342 gain over collections in the same period last year.

Tobacco tax collections were $8,843,476, a decline of $2,136,233 or 19.5 percent from February 2006 collections.

Motor vehicle fuel collections decreased $1,192,947 or 7.7 percent from last February's collections to $14,266,362.

The Department of Revenue is responsible for the administration of state tax laws and motor vehicle title and registration laws established by the legislature and the collection of taxes and fees associated with those laws. The Department of Revenue collects approximately 92 percent of total state tax revenue. During the 2005-2006 fiscal year, the department collected $10.3 billion in state taxes and fees. In addition to collecting state taxes, $1.8 billion of local sales tax was collected by the department for local governments during the 2005-2006 fiscal year. Besides collecting taxes, the department enforces the revenue laws fairly and impartially in an effort to encourage voluntary taxpayer compliance. The department also apportions revenue collections for distribution to the various state funds and local units of government. To learn more about the department, log on to www.Tennessee.gov/revenue.

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