Capitol Beat: Kemp signs tax cut bill
Gov. Brian Kemp signed the largest tax cut in Georgia history Tuesday, legislation he said when fully implemented will save a family of four with an annual household income of $60,000 more than $600 a year.
“Government should take in the least amount possible needed to serve the people properly,” Kemp said during a signing ceremony in Bonaire, the hometown of Georgia House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Shaw Blackmon, the tax cut bill’s chief sponsor. “Taxpayer dollars are the people’s money, not the government’s.”
Kemp said the income tax cut represents the long-term component of a tax reduction package lawmakers approved this year, including a one-time $1.1 billion tax refund, a temporary suspension of the state’s gasoline sales tax to put a dent in rising pump prices, and legislation he signed last week exempting military retirees from the state income tax.
The Center Square: Georgia's Kemp signs income tax cut bill into law
House Bill 1437 sets the state’s tax level at a flat 5.49% rate for the tax year beginning Jan. 1, 2024, which lowers to 4.99% for the tax year starting Jan. 1, 2029. The measure received broad bipartisan support in both chambers of the state legislature.
"This couldn’t have come at a better time for Georgia’s small businesses," NFIB State Director Nathan Humphrey said in a statement. "Skyrocketing inflation, a spike in fuel costs, and ongoing supply chain disruptions are putting tremendous financial pressures on Main Street businesses. HB 1437 is going to relieve some of that pressure by easing some of that pressure.
"HB 1437 is going to help small business owners because most small businesses in the state are organized as pass-through entities, meaning their owners pay state income taxes at the individual rather than the corporate rate," Humphrey added.
41 WGMT: Governor Brian Kemp introduces new Tax Cut Bill
HB 14-37 is the largest tax cut Georgians have ever seen, and only the second tax cut in Georgia history.
Residents will also no longer pay taxes on their first $30,000.
13 WMAZ: Gov. Kemp signs bill creating flat state income tax. Here’s what that means for you
According to Ron Busby, tax director at Clifton Lipford Hardison & Parker, this new bill may be sprinkling some more money into your pockets as it takes Georgia's current tax rate from 5.75% gradually down to 4.99%. Busby breaks down how that'll work.
“The first decrease will be in 2024, when it'll go down to 5.49%, and then from there it will go down 0.1% each year until it gets down to 4.99% in 2029,” he says.
Busby says that'll reduce taxes pretty significantly; almost a full point.
"When you combine that with the increase in the standard deduction, then that will really increase because you're gonna have a smaller amount that you're figuring tax on at a lower rate,” he said.
11 Alive: Gov. Kemp signs historic income tax cut into law
Gov. Brian Kemp is expected to sign Georgia's largest income tax cut into law on Tuesday.
The move is predicted to slash taxes for families by more than one billion dollars.
It would also increase standard exemptions covering amounts someone could earn before beginning to pay state income tax.
Original source found here.
