Small: Tax cuts put Oklahoma on a better path

Tax cuts put Oklahoma on a better path By Jonathan Small The How Money Walks website shows that Oklahoma lost $1.79 billion in adjusted annual gross income from 1992 to 2018 with many earners fleeing to states that have no income tax. This year, lawmakers took an important step to reduce or reverse that outflow by cutting the state penalty on work—Oklahoma’s income tax. Thanks to the outcome of this year’s session, Oklahoma’s top income tax rate is poised to fall from 5 percent to 4.75 percent. That will still be far higher than the zero-percent rate in nine states that don’t tax wages at all, but it is also much better than the rates in most other states. Only a handful of states that impose an income tax will have a lower rate than Oklahoma. In our region, Oklahoma will trail only Texas, which has no income tax, and Colorado, which has a 4.63 percent rate. The ideal situation would involve full elimination of Oklahoma’s income tax, but cutting the rate is a step in the right direction. Investment goes where it is wanted. The presence of an income tax is a strong deterrent to job creators, and the higher the rate the greater the deterrent. That’s why the nine states that impose no income tax on wages experienced a net increase in income from 1992 to 2018, according to How Money Walks. Read more » by Jamison Faught - June 25, 2021 at 08:12PM

Small: Tax cuts put Oklahoma on a better path Click the title to read the entire article at Muskogee Politico