By Antonio D. French
Filed Saturday, January 20, 2007 at 8:25 AM
A taxpayer watchdog group is calling a proposal to repeal the state tax on all Social Security benefits a "sham". Labels: Analysis, Press_Releases
Missourians for Tax Justice says that legislation, most likely House Bill 297 and Senate Bill 230, is "counterfeit concern" for senior citizens because, according to group's chairman Pat Martin, seniors with incomes below $25,000 ($32,000 for married couples) already pay zero tax on Social Security benefits.
(Click the chart to enlarge)
"Speaker Rod Jetton claims this proposal would help seniors with the costs of medication, food and housing. That’s a cover-up for the fact that this proposal is a regressive tax change that would primarily benefit the wealthiest 37 percent of Missouri’s seniors," Martin said.
"Actually, Missourians aged 65 or more and in the top one percent in income (average income of $896,000) would receive an average tax cut of $1,181 from this proposal. Can anyone believe that is needed?"
Martin says the poorest 46% of Missouri seniors -- those with incomes less than $27,000 -- receive no benefit at all from this proposal.
Missourians for Tax Justice estimate eliminating the tax on Social Security Benefits for the wealthiest income tax payers would cost the state $100 million this year and probably more in the future as more Missourians age.
"Missouri can’t afford this cut in the state’s revenue," Martin stated. "We’ve had over $3 billion in cuts to essential services over the past 5 years. Thousands have been cut from Medicaid, and our public education system is drastically underfunded. Now is not the time to deliberately reduce the state’s revenue with a big tax cut to the wealthiest senior citizens."
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home