Tax receipts don't jive with increased retail sales

[charliebrown]

From Lee Adler Nov 16th 2009.

http://blog.ml-implode.com/2009/11/r...-another-joke/

Basically stating that if retail sales are up, why aren't sales tax receipts trending up too?

Also looks at the fed treasury balance sheet and shows FICA, FWH down sharply too.

I use the BLS employment report and multiply number of workers * average weekly pay. The numbers aren't pretty. Seems like wages decreasing 1% each month. I only started doing this in the summer when the unemp number did not match what my nose was telling me.

[thriftyandboringinohio]

Re: Tax receipts don't jive with increased retail sales

One possible explanation is on-line purchases, largely exempt from sales taxes.

[jpatter666]

Re: Tax receipts don't jive with increased retail sales

One possible explanation is on-line purchases, largely exempt from sales taxes.

I'm sure that is part of it, but some online transactions are taxed, and I think overall, they make up only ~3-4% of sales volume?

http://www.census.gov/retail/mrts/ww...html/09Q3.html

[GRG55]

Re: Tax receipts don't jive with increased retail sales

I'm sure that is part of it, but some online transactions are taxed, and I think overall, they make up only ~3-4% of sales volume?

http://www.census.gov/retail/mrts/ww...html/09Q3.html

Is inventory restocking [as opposed to final end-point sale of merchandise] counted as retail "sales" in the way the stats are collected?

Or is this another example like China where apparently sales of automobiles are skyrocketing, but consumption of gasoline is flat...interesting, non?

[ViC78]

Re: Tax receipts don't jive with increased retail sales

A lot of states do not tax groceries and clothing. Maybe people are just are buying essentials and these do not generate tax revenue.