Mississippi House Votes to Repeal Income Tax

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

(Jackson, MS): Yesterday the Mississippi House of Representatives voted to repeal the state income tax with HB 531. 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.

The Mississippi Center for Public Policy welcomes this early "victory" as a sign of hope and a mark of achievement on the 2022 Freedom Agenda.

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in spending but applying any revenue collected over that rate to increase the exemption until the tax is completely repealed.
• Increases the sales tax rate.
• 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.

“Three cheers to the House of Representatives for voting to abolish the state income tax!” said Douglas Carswell, President & CEO of the Mississippi Center for Public Policy. “Our state needs a boost, and getting rid of the state income tax will give every Mississippi worker a tax break and help our economy to become more competitive. Neither Texas, Tennessee, nor Florida have a state income tax – and they are thriving. Scrapping Mississippi’s state income tax would help lift up our state.”

Senior Director of Policy & Communications Hunter Estes said, “This directly allows hard-working Mississippians to keep more of their own money, which is an idea everyone should be able to get behind. We're hopeful the Senate will pass this major legislation, too.”

The Mississippi Center for Public Policy believes repealing the state income tax would be both a moral and economic good, leading to higher incomes, competitiveness, and prosperity for all Mississippians!

For media inquiries, please reach out to Stone Clanton, [email protected].