Washington starts fiscal 2015 with rising tax collections

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Total tax collections for Washington were 39.8 percent higher in October than the same month last year, according to a report released by the office of the District of Columbia's chief financial officer on Wednesday. In October, the first month of fiscal 2015 for the U.S. capital, tax collections totaled $127 million. The report showed that for all of last fiscal year tax collections were $6.12 billion, 0.3 percent higher than the year before. The increase was a lot lower than Washington has seen of late - tax collections in fiscal 2013 were 5 percent higher than the previous year. In fiscal 2012, they were 9.9 percent higher. Housing has been riding a boom in Washington; both property taxes and deed taxes rose from October 2013 to October 2014. On the other hand, both corporate and individual income taxes fell. The value of October 2014 property transfers was 23.5 percent more than in October 2013. Housing sales were 12.1 percent higher, with the average price of single-family homes rising 16.3 percent to $738,985 and that of condominiums increasing 10.8 percent to $499,893, as well. The financial office also said the district, a city without a state, has the lowest combined tax burden when compared to its metropolitan neighbors, according to a study where hypothetical state and local taxes were estimated for a family of three at different income levels in eight regional jurisdictions. Specifically, the district's income tax is lowest for all income levels except for those at the $50,000 and $150,000 levels. Meanwhile, the property tax burden falls below all area-wide averages, ranging from 2.35 percent to 3.13 percent. The study used 2013 data. (Reporting By Lisa Lambert; Editing by Jonathan Oatis)