Idaho lawmakers have a new tool available to guide them in making tax policy decisions. The Legislature’s Office of Performance Evaluations presented a 38-page report to the Joint Legislative Oversight Committee this morning. The study, a Guide to Comparing Business Tax Policies, was requested by the 2012 Legislature. The report focuses on a couple of […]
Gov. C.L. “Butch” Otter is spending part of his week in Coeur d’Alene at Idaho’s largest business lobby’s annual convention. Gov. Otter’s spokesman says one of the administration’s main goals for the next legislative session is to pass a third-consecutive year of tax cuts. In 2012, the Legislature lowered corporate and individual income tax rates […]
Did you remember to include the use tax on your Idaho income tax form? Judging by the numbers, probably not. Idaho is one of 45 states that collects a use tax. But as NPR’s Planet Money reports, the vast majority of taxpayers don’t pay it. There is one mistake, in particular, that lots of people […]
The Idaho Legislature will go home today having approved nearly $20.7 million in tax cuts. That’s a fraction, less than one percent, of the state’s general fund budget. Far and away the largest share of that cut is the $20 million approved to offset the effect of partially repealing Idaho’s business personal property tax. The […]
In 2011, more than 53,000 Idaho companies paid the business personal property tax. Half of those businesses paid less than $90. Who stands to benefit from getting rid of the tax? Click around the map to see the top five payers in each county. The darker a county is shaded, the more reliant it is on the personal property tax.
According to the Tax Policy Center Idaho has the 10th largest share of tax filers who don’t pay federal income taxes. Yesterday, Mother Jones released video of Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney saying, among other things, that people who don’t pay income taxes are “dependent upon government” and won’t vote for him. But as this […]
The people of Rockland, Idaho pay a lot to support their school. As StateImpact reported yesterday, they pay the highest levy rate in the state, despite having some of Idaho’s lowest property values. Let’s unpack that a little more. What exactly does that mean? Relying on the most recent statewide data, from 2010, taxpayers in […]
You might not guess it, if you happened to pass through, but tiny Rockland, Idaho, population 318, is a place of distinction. The town has no grocery store. Its gas station is just a couple of unmanned pumps where you pay by credit card. But what this town does have is a school, and local […]
Tax collections were slightly higher than expected for April. Idaho’s general fund, the state’s main bank account, topped revenue forecasts by $500,000. The Division of Financial Management’s monthly General Fund Revenue Report shows individual income and corporate tax collections came in 1 percent and 12 percent below the forecast.
A new 55-page report from The Pew Center on the States shows most states don’t really know if business tax incentives are boosting job growth. In case you don’t have time to read the full report, here’s what you should know: 26 states, including Idaho, don’t really know if the millions (in some cases billions) […]
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