Tax Justice Digest stories about Utah
Lawmakers in these three states and others should investigate property tax credits that ensure that low-income folks aren't burdened by the tax. While it may be popular with constituents to discuss property tax cuts, it's vital that replacement revenue be identified as well.
In a welcome trend, lawmakers and advocates in Connecticut, New Jersey, North Carolina, Nebraska, New Mexico, Montana, Hawaii, Utah, Ohio, and Iowa are considering enacting Earned Income Tax Credits — or expanding existing EITCs. The federal EITC has been hailed by policymakers of all stripes as an especially effective tool for lifting working families out of poverty. At the state level, the EITC offers the additional benefit of helping to offset the regressive sales and property taxes that hit low-income families hardest. To find out more about whether EITC legislation is active in your state, check out the Hatcher Group's State EITC Online Resource Center.
Thanks to a special one-day legislative session earlier this week, Utah has two income taxes. Starting next year, wealthier Utahns will be able to choose between the current graduated-rate tax system (with a top rate of 6.98 percent) and a new broader-based tax levied at a lower flat rate of 5.35 percent. ITEP estimates that only 3 percent of the wealthiest Utahns will benefit from the flat-tax alternative, and that the wealthiest 1 percent of Utahns will see more than 75% of the benefit from the flat tax.
Taken on its own, the flat-tax alternative has its good points: it has virtually no exemptions, deductions or credits, which makes it a lot easier to calculate than the current tax. But the high rate on the flat tax makes it a losing proposition for virtually all low- and middle-income Utahns, which is why the legislation allows Utah families to choose which tax system they'd like to use. The legislative leadership's goal of enacting tax reform with "no losers" made the pick-your-own system the logical choice from a political perspective. The result? 97% of Utahns will pay taxes under the same old complicated income tax rules they've always had - and many of them will probably end up calculating their taxes under both systems to see if they'd benefit from the flat tax. Call it a tax cut - but don't call it tax reform.
Want to know more? Two columnists offer good retrospectives on this year's tax deform effort. For more details on Utah's income tax changes, check out the Talking Taxes weblog here.
Republican lawmakers in Utah are proposing a new personal income tax system, or actually, two new personal income tax systems. Under the proposed plan, a taxpayer could elect to calculate their income tax using a marginal rate structure along with existing standard deduction and exemption amounts or simply apply a flat rate to a slightly modified version of their federal adjusted gross income. Needless to say this proposal would make Utah's personal income tax that much more complex but it would also benefit the state's wealthiest residents more than its poor and working class families.
