Missouri residents may soon pay a flat 4% state income tax, under a plan advanced by Republican lawmakers who want to eventually eliminate the tax.
At the same time, the GOP proposal would give the General Assembly the power to impose sales taxes on an array of previously untaxed services – everything from massages to furnace maintenance.
Numerous Republicans are prioritizing taxes as the GOP-controlled Missouri legislature’s annual session begins Wednesday. Gov.-elect Mike Kehoe, who takes office next week, promised in his campaign to pursue elimination of the state income tax and some legislators are moving swiftly to hold him to it.
A group of Republican lawmakers last month filed a series of identical measures setting the stage for a sweeping tax debate. Their legislation would collapse the state’s 10 personal income tax brackets into a single 4% bracket. Many full-time workers and some part-time workers would receive a tax cut because the current top rate of 6% begins at $9,000 of taxable income.