New York Comptroller Releases Second-Quarter 2021 Local Sales Tax Report
SUMMARY BY TAX ANALYSTS
The New York state comptroller published a report finding that local sales tax collections for the second quarter of 2021 rose approximately $1.6 billion — or 49.2 percent — from the same period in 2020, attributing the "extraordinary" increase in revenue to the "extremely weak" collections in April-June 2020 caused by COVID-19; the comptroller also noted that New York City's revenues increased for the first time after four quarters of gradual year-over-year declines, with second-quarter 2021 growth of 44.6 percent.
The report further revealed that the 2020-2021 sales tax year — the first full sales tax year in which both the state's economic nexus policy and its marketplace provision were in effect — saw sales tax revenues that "far exceeded" the original estimates, although this outcome was, in large part, the result of the pandemic's effect on consumer spending behavior.
The comptroller also issued a press release summarizing the major findings of the report.