(The Center Square) – Wisconsin collected $2.4 billion in general purpose revenue taxes in April, a 13.7% increase from the year before.
Those numbers matched the revenue estimates released before last week’s failure of a $1.8 billion surplus spending bill in the Wisconsin Senate.
The April numbers showed that state collections through April were up 5.2% year over year to nearly $17.4 billion in the fiscal year compared to $16.5 billion in collections in fiscal 2025.
That increase led to the Department of Administration’s new economic forecast showing that it expects the state to collect $300 to $350 million more in taxes from Wisconsin residents than its revised estimates in January showed.
More than half of that total, between $175 and $185 million, will come from individual income tax collection increases while $70 to $80 million will come from corporate tax collections.
“While a portion of the gain in individual income tax collections results from a favorable comparison due to processing season anomalies in fiscal year 2024-25, growth has significantly exceeded the 1.4 percent growth rate estimated in January for fiscal year 2025-26,” the Department of Administration wrote in a memo.
Part of the processing season anomalies were noted in the April revenue report for the state.
“Individual income taxes and Total GPR in Fiscal Year 2025 were negatively impacted by third-party check receiving and processing delays in April,” the report noted. “Those check payments, estimated at over $200 million, are included in the May revenue report.”
