“The Washington State House Finance Committee made revisions to a proposed income tax after a group of progressive lawmakers said the previous version gave away too much while not doing enough for working families.
“A tax break that would have benefited big businesses has been removed from the latest version of a bill to tax incomes more than $1 million is being advanced by Democratic leaders. A group of 13 progressive lawmakers in the House pushed for those provisions to be stripped.”
tax incomes more than $1 million
They’ll just take out loans against stock and live off of that money. It doesn’t count as income and is also not taxed as capital gains.
That’s a huge loophole that needs closing.
progressives are the only ones doing their damned jobs.
Please correct me if I’m wrong. But my understanding is that income taxes are illegal in WA so this would require a constitutional amendment. Is this that amendment? Or some law that’s going to pass just to be struck down by the court and waste everyone’s time?
Everyone who says “$1 million is not a lot of money” is an idiot who probably doesn’t have $1 million themselves and never will.
It’s not “retire and live a life of luxury” money, at least in many parts of the world.
It’s a lot of money in terms of paying down debt and covering rent for a while, though.
A million dollars to someone or something that regularly generates tens to hundreds of millions, if not billions, every year is not a lot of money at all.
I was wrong
So no more tax cuts for the rich but also nothing to help the working class? aka nothing has changed? I don’t see that as very “progressive”
Maybe I’m misreading your comment, but that’s not what’s happening here.
This is a new tax bill being proposed, that would add an additional tax on people with incomes over a million dollars, bringing in nearly 4 billion dollars every single year in additional income.
All they did here was remove a provision that would have ended a tax on businesses making over $250m/yr, which would make Washington lose $550m.
So…
no more tax cuts for the rich
Correct, at least the one tax cut that would have otherwise been in this bill.
nothing to help the working class?
Incorrect, this money would expand the Working Families Tax Credit (sales tax rebate for people with lower incomes), cut some additional sales taxes (which are regressive taxes) on hygiene products, in favor of this progressive income-based tax, and fund the public school system, healthcare services, and most other services Washington provides.
This is aimed at reducing, and hopefully eventually eliminating, the state’s reliance on regressive taxes like sales taxes, in favor of progressive taxes, like this one, on high income earners.
aka nothing has changed?
This is an additional 9.9% tax on incomes over a million dollars that doesn’t exist already. This is $3.7B that would not otherwise be spendable by the Washington government on public services, and it would help to close the budget deficit, which currently would require taking hundreds of millions of dollars from the state’s rainy day fund.
I don’t see that as very “progressive”
So to wrap that up, what I’m saying here is this is billions of dollars going to public services, as well as removing some regressive parts of the tax system, while now not giving massive tax breaks to corporations.
If this bill doesn’t pass or hadn’t been introduced to begin with, Washington would have cut many public services, kept more regressive taxes, and lost much of its rainy day fund.
Well, happy to be wrong
quote i'm replying to was retracted
…nothing to help the working class? aka nothing has changed
Sorry for the snarky tone but you should probably read the article fully before making statements like this. There are a number of benefits to children and working class families from this change.
Democrats in the House committee also worked to put in a sales tax exemption for diapers and moved up a scheduled rollback of sales tax on technology services that the Senate had added.
Budget writers in both the House and Senate are counting on billions in revenue from the tax to cover the state’s operating expenses starting in 2029. Without the tax, the current supplemental budget plans included hundreds of millions of dollars in cuts to child care subsidies over the next four years.
Last I read, doesn’t WA currently have some of the more regressive taxes in the country?
we’re pretty close to being #1!
Yeah. There’s no income tax, so it’s sales tax and excise taxes all the way down.
Is it illegal or something to have property tax brackets? Why does every single state, county, and municipality apply a flat rate (excl. allowances)?
Article VII, Sec I of the state constitution says
“All taxes shall be uniform upon the same class of property within the territorial limits of the authority levying the tax…”
So taxes on things need to be uniform (so, like, 2.5% on ALL property or ALL Doritos).
The voters approved a bracketed state income tax back in the day, but a lawsuit from it basically said “income is property.” So they could probably do a flat tax on income, but those are stupid.
But that same article also says “All taxes shall be uniform upon the same class of property within the territorial limits of the authority levying the tax…” and pure value doesn’t constitute a different class.
That’s basically what I remember backed up by two searches on Google, so sorry if I’m wrong.
Can they do a flat tax with a non-flat rebate?
Great news, but, just status quo.
These same lawmakers started an asstroturfing campaign on social media, specifically Reddit subs of Seattle and Washington attempting to get people to more openly support the current plan by answering questions.
It backfired immediately as all the top replies are asking why it’s not an across the board sales tax cut for everyone struggling? Why is it only tax exemptions for specific cases?
Another big question that they still refuse to answer is why not write the law so it won’t eventually go lower or start impacting middle/low class in just a few years? These are very easy to write in and adjust for inflation/wage increases.
Democrat lawmakers are silent on purpose and the silence is deafening even for progressives.
