Topeka ? Kansas says it collected $4.4 million less in taxes than anticipated this month.

But the Department of Revenue said Thursday that the lower-than-expected collections may be due to how tax returns have been processed since the April 15 filing deadline. Spokeswoman Jeannine Koranda said the agency can’t predict which returns will be processed first.

The state expected to collect nearly $516 million in taxes for the month. Instead, it collected $511.5 million. The shortfall was 0.9 percent.

It was the first monthly report on tax collections since state officials issued a new, more pessimistic fiscal forecast earlier this month.

Since the current fiscal year began in July, the state has collected about $4.5 billion in taxes. That’s also $4.4 million less than expect, for a shortfall of 0.1 percent.