St. Louis Post-Dispatch: Tax calculator for Missouri legislation doesn’t give the full picture
media mentionI’m writing in response to Virginia Young’s “Tax shuffle could shake up Missouri” article (April 29) but specifically regarding the tax plan calculator that accompanies it online. The chart in the article comparing current law, the Senate and House plans is quite helpful and points out important distinctions between the proposals, but the tax calculator omits some key information about who wins and who loses under these plans.
A new exemption for pass-through business income (half of all business income), for example, is a major component of both tax proposals, but is omitted from the tax calculator. That means your readers don’t learn that that exemption would be an extra boon to the wealthiest taxpayers, as is the income tax rate cut.
Also, both the House and Senate raise the state sales tax, but nowhere in the calculator are increased sales taxes calculated. Note that the sales tax disproportionately affects low-income families, who spend most of their income on things subject to the sales tax.
It’s important for taxpayers to know how their tax bills would change under various policy prescriptions, but any taxpayer using this calculator isn’t getting the full picture.
Kelly Davis • Whitewater, Wis.
Midwest director, Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy