BERLIN (Reuters) - German federal and regional tax revenues rose 2.6% to 61.2 billion euros ($65.77 billion) in May from the previous year, helped by a one-off base effect that boosted income on the federal level, the finance ministry said on Thursday.

Growth in wage tax and in flat-rate withholding tax on interest and capital gains contrasted with lower revenues from sales tax and corporation tax compared with a year ago.

In the first five months of the year, tax revenues in Europe's biggest economy rose 2.8% to 322.3 billion euros, said the ministry in its monthly report.

The most recent tax estimates put this year's overall tax revenues 4.1% higher, at almost 864 billion euros.

The government is in the midst of discussions about the 2025 budget with the three parties, including Chancellor Olaf Scholz's Social Democrats (SPD), the Greens and Finance Minister Christian Lindner's Free Democrats (FDP) at odds in many areas.

Looking at the wider economy, the report said that although some indicators had moved sideways in May, the leading ones were increasingly pointing to a moderate recovery for the rest of the year.

($1 = 0.9305 euros)