City Council
Staff Report
From: City Manager
Report Type: INFORMATION REPORTS
Lead Department: Administrative Services
Meeting Date: February 12, 2024
Report #:2401-2567
TITLE
Sales Tax Digest Summary Calendar 2023 (July 2023 - Sept 2023)
DISCUSSION
This report transmits information regarding the City of Palo Alto’s sales tax receipts for the third quarter (July - September) of 2023. Further and more detailed levels of information can be found in the attached City of Palo Alto Sales Tax Digest Summary and Legislative Update 2023 Q3 (Attachment A).
The City’s sales tax cash receipts of $9.6 million for the third quarter (July to September 2023) is $0.90 million (10.3%) higher than the same quarter of the prior year (see Attachment A, Historical Analysis by Calendar Quarter). When adjusted for non-period related payments, the overall economic quarter over quarter sales tax activity (Q3 2022 to Q3 2023) in Palo Alto increased by $0.96 million (13.9%). Statewide, Q3 2023 sales tax cash receipts decreased 3.2% from Q3 2022.
For the year ending in the third quarter of 2023, sales tax cash receipts for the city increased by
9.7% from the prior year. When adjusted for non-period related payments, the overall economic sales tax activity in Palo Alto for the year increased by 6.0%. In comparison, statewide sales tax cash receipts decreased by 0.3% and Northern California decreased by 0.8%.
The third quarter includes $1.5 million of sales tax receipts from the county pool. The City’ s share of the county pool for this quarter is 6.7%, up 0.8% from the third quarter of 2022.
County pools are primarily from online purchases from out-of-state companies, remote sellers who ship merchandise to California/ County destinations, and private vehicle sales that are not directly allocated to a jurisdiction. County pools are allocated to local jurisdictions based on each jurisdiction’ s share of total sales taxes.
ATTACHMENTS
Attachment A: 2023 Q3 Sales Tax Data and Legislative Update APPROVED BY:
Kiely Nose, Assistant City Manager