Acting Texas Comptroller Kelly Hancock said on May 1 that state sales tax revenue reached $4.7 billion in April, representing a 9.8 percent increase compared to April 2025. Most of the April sales tax revenue was based on transactions made in March and submitted to the agency in April.
Hancock said the growth rate for state sales tax collections last month was nearly 10 percent, which is higher than general price inflation for a second consecutive month. “Overall state sales tax collections grew by nearly 10 percent last month, with growth much higher than the rate of general price inflation for a second consecutive month,” Hancock said. “Results from all major economic sectors were once again positive. Compared with March collections when business spending showed the strongest growth, the growth in April collections was led by large gains from sectors driven mainly by consumer spending.”
Receipts from construction, wholesale trade, and manufacturing continued to show strong performance among sectors influenced primarily by business spending, while remittances from mining saw slight increases compared to their totals from April of last year.
The largest increases came from retail trade and service sectors, both rising by double digits over last year’s figures for April. The report highlighted a surge in live entertainment spending within services and strong results among big box retailers and warehouse clubs within retail trade. Electronic shopping also contributed significantly to gains; clothing and accessories stores as well as electronics and appliance stores experienced notable growth, while grocery store receipts declined slightly compared to a year ago.
Restaurant receipts increased by 4.2 percent over last year—surpassing food-away-from-home inflation rates—while total sales tax revenue for the three months ending in April rose by 7.9 percent over the same period one year earlier. Sales taxes make up about 58 percent of all Texas state tax collections.
Other major taxes collected included $575 million from motor vehicle sales and rentals (up 42 percent), $342 million from motor fuel taxes (up 1 percent), $567 million from oil production (up 30 percent), $223 million from natural gas production (down 4 percent), $90 million from hotel occupancy (up 7 percent), and $163 million from alcoholic beverage taxes (up less than one percent) compared with figures reported in April of last year.
