How long does it take for an income tax, once introduced, to decrease? Longer than U.S. life expectancy in Missouri.
Adopted in 2014, Missouri legislation SB 509, will eventually reduce state income rates by half a percent from 6 percent to 5.5 percent. The rate dips by one-tenth of a percent each year once state revenues exceed the previous three years’ revenues by $150 million. Revenues reached those bench marks in 2018, so Missouri taxpayers will begin to see slight drops in income tax rates.
The bill that I carried cutting MO's income tax for 1st time in over 100 years will start its 1st phase in jan 1 2018. #moleg @Eric_Schmitt
— Andrew Koenig (@Koenig4MO) August 30, 2017
Sen. Andrew Koenig, a Manchester Republican, noted on Twitter that the rate decrease will be the first one in Missouri in 100 years.
Missouri implemented an income tax in 1917. Since then, lawmakers have never cut rates.
As the Missourian reported, Missouri income tax rates have changed since their inception. Initially, the rate was a half of a percent of individual income.
“Income tax saw revisions throughout the years. Graduated tax brackets were created in 1939 and have not been changed since 1972. The limit for deduction for federal income taxes was created in 1993. There were various other revisions and adjustments as well,” a story fact-checking Koenig’s tweet reads. “However none of these were decreases in the tax levied.”
The Columbia Missourian fact checkers deemed Koenig’s tweet only “mostly true,” because Missouri lawmakers have created deductions to decrease some people’s tax liabilities.
“Koenig’s statement is accurate but needs that clarifying information,” the paper concludes.
Life expectancy in the U.S. is 78 years, but a Missourian needed to live almost a quarter of a century longer to see the income tax reduced.
Former President Ronald Reagan once said, “A government bureau is the nearest thing to eternal life we’ll ever see on this earth.” Though he was talking about the bureaucracy, Reagan may as well have said the same about the income tax.
