Massachusetts tax collections in October were $48 million below the same month a year ago, and missed official benchmarks for the fourth consecutive month in this fiscal year.
State Revenue Commissioner Amy Pitter said Monday that Massachusetts appears to be seeing a slowdown in the pace of recovery from the recession.
The state collected slightly above $1.4 billion in taxes last month, down 3.3 percent from October 2011.
October collections were $162 million below benchmarks for the month, and collections through the first four months of the fiscal year that started on July 1 are $256 million below benchmark.
Pitter said higher-than-anticipated income and corporate tax refunds contributed to the weak October performance.
Sales taxes were $13 million higher than the same month a year ago.
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