The Texas Comptroller’s office recently released Taxes of Texas: A Field Guide, a periodic report providing an overview of Texas’ major state taxes, andthe Tax Exemptions and Tax Incidence Report, which estimates the value of each exemption, exclusion, discount, deduction, special accounting method, credit, refund and special appraisal available to payers of Texas’ sales, franchise, motor vehicle sales and oil production taxes, as well as property taxes levied by school districts.

“As the 2023 legislative session kicks into high gear and legislators begin the difficult work of crafting a biennial budget, the Tax Exemptions and Tax Incidence Report provides lawmakers with exemption estimates to help them navigate a range of complex revenue and spending issues,” Texas Comptroller Glenn Hegar said.

In Tax Exemptions and Tax Incidence, Texans can see that for fiscal 2023, aggregate exemptions for these revenue sources will total an estimated $78.03 billion. Of this amount, exemptions related to state taxes included in the report account for $60.57 billion; school property tax exemptions account for the remaining $17.46 billion.

About $20.58 billion of the estimated fiscal 2023 amount represents sales tax exemptions for items taxable under other law, including insurance premiums, motor vehicle sales and motor fuels. Exemptions from the sales tax on those items are estimated to be worth $9.55 billion, $5.64 billion and $4.36 billion, respectively.

Other exemptions from the sales tax include $9.28 billion in raw materials used in manufacturing, $3.93 billion in food for home consumption and $1.05 billion worth of over-the-counter drugs and prescription medicines and devices.

Every year, the state collects billions in state taxes and fees, federal receipts and other sources of revenue. These funds are used to pay for all responsibilities of state government, including the education of nearly 5.4 million public school students and the provision of health insurance for more than 5 million low-income Texans.

In Taxes of Texas: A Field Guide, readers can:

• learn how major taxes have contributed to state revenue during the past 10 years;
• see revenue estimates, exemption value estimates and tax allocations; and
• connect to other in-depth resources about state taxes.

“Using a graphic-rich overview of major state and local taxes, including historical collections and estimates of future growth, this guide highlights and compiles useful information from a variety of Comptroller reports in one easily accessed spot,” Hegar said.

Additional reports highlighting state spending and revenue are on the Comptroller’s website.