Today, Texas House Ways and Means Committee outlined the House’s $4.9 billion tax relief package, which includes $2.6 billion in business margin tax cuts and $2.3 billion in sales tax relief. House Bill 31 would cut the state’s sales tax rate from 6.25 percent to 5.95 percent. House Bill 32 would cut the two margin tax rates by 25 percent and increase the revenue amount that firms can file an EZ tax form to $20 million and lower that rate to 0.331 percent.
The Foundation’s Center for Fiscal Policy Director Talmadge Heflin issued the following statement:
“We appreciate the efforts by the House to provide substantial, permanent tax relief that would bring about the largest tax cut in the state’s history. With today’s announcement, this is a terrific position for Texans to be in. The discussion in the Senate and House is not about how much more money the government can spend; it is about how much money the government can return to taxpayers where it belongs. Based on the overwhelming evidence that repealing the margin tax will lead to the largest economic returns, we will watch closely to see that phasing out the margin tax is a priority. We look forward to the tax relief discussions in both chambers moving forward.”
The Honorable Talmadge Heflin, Director of the Center for Fiscal Policy at the Texas Public Policy Foundation. In the 78th Session, Heflin served as chairman of the House Committee on Appropriations and navigated a $10 billion state budget shortfall through targeted spending cuts that allowed Texans to avoid a tax increase.
The Texas Public Policy Foundation is a non-profit, free-market research institute based in Austin, Texas.