State sales tax receipts across the U.S. shrank by nearly $6 billion, or 21%, from a year earlier in the latest monthly data, according to an analysis released Tuesday.
“State stay-at-home orders, decisions to close businesses, states’ sales tax filing and payment deadline extensions, and COVID-19 cases all contributed to the freefall of sales tax revenues,” the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center said in a blog post.
Every reporting U.S. state with a broad-based sales tax posted a revenue loss in a comparison of May 2019 and May 2020 figures, though the extent of the damage varies from state to ...