Missouri House Proceeds With Tax Relief Plan

The Missouri House is moving ahead with plans to bring tax relief to Missourians. Representative Josh Hurlbert provided an update on two bills this week.

The bill builds off of the personal income tax cut from last November - Missouri Representative Josh Hurlbert

The Missouri House voted to provide more than $1 billion of tax relief to Missourians on Thursday by passing House Bills 816 and 660. These bills would cut personal income tax and corporate income tax and exempt social security benefits from state tax.

Representative Dirk Deaton believes it is important to reduce Missouri’s tax rate to make sure the state economy grows.

“If you look at the states that are growing, look at states like Tennessee and Texas and Florida, and you look at what they are doing, they’re growing their economy. There’s more jobs, more business investment, more growth, more population growth. What are those states doing? They’re cutting taxes. They’re giving more money back to their people, keeping it in the pockets of the people and not of the government. They’re not growing the government. They’re growing their communities and the economies and their businesses, and that’s what we need to do,” Deaton stated.

Missouri’s top personal income tax rate of 4.95% would drop to 4.5% on January 1, 2024 if the bills pass.

“The bill builds off of the personal income tax cut from last November, when the top rate was lowered from 5.3%,” according to Representative Hurlbert. “

The bill also preserves triggers put into place when the General Assembly approved that tax relief package last year. If revenues grow at a healthy rate and all triggers are met, the top tax rate would be reduced to 4.05%.

Under the new bill the corporate income tax would also fall. It is currently at 4%, but the bill would drop the rate to 2% on January 1, 2024. This would make Missouri’s corporate income tax the lowest among states that still collect the tax. The plan also has triggers that could phase out the corporate income tax if state revenues grow.

KPGZ News - Brian Watts contributed to this story