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Sales Tax Report

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Sales Tax Report

Sales Tax returns for March
Hawkins defies recession;
sales tax strong, growing
By JOHN SPARKS

Sales tax returns for March 2009 for Hawkins continued to defy downturns in national, state and county trends with dramatic increases the past three months. For the first three months of 2009, Hawkins sales tax returns are up by 28.24 percent over the same period in 2008. The results run counter to that in four of the other five municipalities in Wood County. Only Alba showed a gain in sales tax returns for the same period.
The sales tax funds are collected by local merchants, sent to the Texas Comptroller along with the state's six and-a-quarter cents tax on each dollar of retail purchase. Hawkins' local portion-one-and-one-half cents/dollar-is then returned two months later (January retailer collections returned in March). Merchants in the unincorporated county areas collect a half-cent sales tax on each dollar sale with the local portion going into the county's general fund.
Wood County's retailers in unincorporated areas of the county also showed a loss of 4.42 percent in sales tax returns for the first three months of 2009 compared with the same three months in 2008.
Hawkins sales tax returns in the most recent monthly report for March were $19,913.67 compared with $15,520.89 for March 2008. Hawkins returns are distributed to the two budgets supported by the sales tax, with approximately $13,275.78 deposited into the city's general fund and the remaining $6,6,37.89, representing a half-cent sales tax, into the Hawkins Community Development Corporation budget.
Comparative figures for sales tax returns for the month of March (as collected in December) for each city and the county follow with commentary furnished by Gary McKinley, executive director of the Wood County Industrial Commission:

 

Last Updated on Friday, 27 March 2009 01:55  

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