HB 531, also known as the "Mississippi Tax Freedom Act of 2022," was principally authored by Speaker Philip Gunn, along with Representatives Lamar, White, Steverson, Barnett, Massengill, Bain, Newman, Rushing, Kinkade, Morgan, Pigott, J. Ford, Calvert, Smith, Creekmore IV, Goodin, Tullos, Carpenter, Hood, Oliver, Robinson, and Boyd.
Similar to the 2021 income tax elimination House bill increases the tax exemption available to Mississippians (for single workers, the exemption would go up from $6,000 to $37,700 and for married workers, from $12,000 to $75,400). The remainder of the income tax elimination would occur in subsequent years by allowing a 1.5% rate of growth in spending but applying any revenue collected over that rate to increase the exemption until the tax is completely repealed. The Increases the sales tax rate is still there, though the offset is a full percentage point lower. The new bill also still reduces the grocery sales tax rate in subsequent years.
This year’s bill does have some differences, though, including the omission of the special interest sales tax rate increases. Additionally, this year’s plan supplements counties from the state to allow for a 35% reduction in car tags. Both of these are major improvements to the bill, as well as the reduction in increase in the proposed sales tax rate.
We applaud the efforts to abolish this awful levy, as we believe repealing the state income tax would be both a moral and economic good, leading to higher incomes, competitiveness, and prosperity for all Mississippians!
The Mississippi Center for Public Policy approves of this legislation and will continue to update you as the 2022 Mississippi Legislative Session continues, and you can keep up with measures by watching our Legislative Tracker.