From the Indianapolis Business Journal:
Gov. Mike Pence announced his support Tuesday for a bill that would cut two Indiana taxes.
Senate Bill 1, which would reduce the corporate income tax and eliminate the business personal property tax for small businesses, passed out of the Senate Tax and Fiscal Policy committee 7-2.
Pence asked the General Assembly to pass legislation that would phase out the business personal property tax during his State of the State address last week. Both the House and Senate have proposed plans to eliminate the tax.
Office of Management and Budget Director Chris Atkins, who spoke on behalf of Pence at the committee meeting, said the governor thinks the Senate plan addresses issues the state needs to resolve in order to remain economically competitive.
“While we’ve made substantial progress on our tax climate in recent years, the governor believes we need to continue to make progress on two important features of our tax system that are addressed in this bill,” Atkins said. “And those are the corporate tax and the business personal property tax.”
SB 1 would reduce the state corporate income tax rate from 6.5 percent to 4.9 percent by 2019. Sen. Brandt Hershman, R-Buck Creek, who authored the bill, said that would reduce state revenue by $130 million a year.
Additionally, businesses with less than $25,000 in personal property would no longer be required to pay the personal property tax. Hershman said this would cost the state $25 million a year.
But Hershman said that’s less than 1 percent of the state’s total annual revenue.
“Our overall goal is job creation. Our overall goal is to be economically competitive,” Hershman said. “And at the end of the day, the way to do that is by looking at what it costs to run a business in the state of Indiana.”
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http://www.ibj.com/governor-endorses-senate-bill-to-cut-state-taxes/PARAMS/article/45688
