(Boise, ID) Idaho House Speaker Mike Moyle unveiled a proposal to reduce income taxes Thursday, calling it the first of three major tax reduction bills coming forward this legislative session.
On Thursday, the House Revenue and Tax voted to introduce Moyle’s new bill, House Bill 40. Moyle said the bill would make three changes.
- The bill would reduce the individual and corporate income tax rates from the current rate of 5.695% down to 5.3%, at a cost of $240 million.
- The bill would expand the income tax exemption to military pensions, at a cost of $12 million.
- The bill would eliminate capital gains tax for gold bullion sales, at a cost of $1 million.
“That makes Idaho more competitive,” Moyle said. “You put some money back into the citizens’ pocket and make businesses that come here look to Idaho and say, ‘alright the rate’s down farther, it’s more competitive than other states.’ It is a drop for the state of Idaho and it is good for all those citizens who pay taxes.”
In conjunction with his State of the State address earlier this month, Idaho Gov. Brad Little called for $100 million in tax reductions.
Moyle said he wants to go even further.
“I appreciate (Little) offering $100 million, but I think together we can do more,” Moyle said. “I hope by the end of the session we’ve had somewhere between $350 (million) and $400 million and this is the start. In the coming days, you’ll see other tax relief bills come to this committee. This one pertains to income tax. The next one you see will pertain to sales tax, and the third one you see will change property taxes.”
Rep. Steve Berch, D-Boise, expressed concern over moving forward with bigger tax reductions that Little proposed without first seeing how such tax cuts would affect the overall budget picture.
“What’s missing is a fiscal analysis to a broader scale,” Berch said. “We can talk about how much money we want to take off the table, but first, to make a decision, I would like to understand what our fiscal obligations are to know if we can afford this.”
Introducing the bill clears the way for it to return to the House Revenue and Taxation Committee for a full public hearing.
This story first appeared on Idaho Capital Sun.
