AFP-MS highlights how phasing out the state personal income tax will deliver maximum relief
JACKSON, MS—Ahead of Speaker Jason White’s policy summit focusing on tax reform, Americans for Prosperity-Mississippi (AFP-MS) released its priorities on how to achieve meaningful, comprehensive tax reform to lawmakers starting with phasing out the personal income tax.
CLICK HERE to read the letter sent by AFP-MS.
AFP-MS State Director, Starla Brown, released the following statement:
“We are so thankful that Speaker White and lawmakers are taking tax reform seriously by holding this summit and prioritizing relief for hardworking Mississippians in the next session. AFP-MS agrees that families need results from their lawmakers, and we hope to see our state become more competitive, let people keep more of their money, and deliver economic diversification by supporting a robust tax plan.”
AFP-MS highlights what lawmakers need to accomplish to create a tax reform plan that phases out the personal income tax:
- Use spending reductions to realign spending with initial reductions in revenue. Lawmakers should make significant spending reductions in areas that either do not represent a genuine funding priority or are not within the proper role of government. The more nonessential spending that can be reduced, the more rapidly lawmakers can provide meaningful tax relief to Mississippi families.
- Eliminate exemptions and carveouts on consumer sales taxes to further realign spending with any initial reductions in revenue. Lawmakers should move government spending away from reliance on the personal income tax and towards a more consumer-based tax system. Consumer based taxes give citizens more choices and freedom when it comes to how and when they are taxed. The larger the consumer tax base, the less consumer taxes will need to be increased in order to realign revenues to properly reduce the effects of phasing out the personal income tax. This means that lawmakers should focus on eliminating carveouts and loopholes that exempt various industries from sales tax, and should not create new exemptions.
- Lawmakers should create a series of economic-based triggers that will phase out the personal income tax while phasing in the increases in consumer sales taxes. The timeframe for this phase out should be similar to previous cuts to the personal income tax rate; not so slow as to fall behind the economic growth of neighboring states and not so fast that the budget becomes unbalanced. But, at no time should lawmakers allow the phase out to be a net tax increase on Mississippians. This plan should be revenue negative or neutral throughout implementation.
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