North Carolina GOP Wants to End State Income Tax

Some North Carolina Republican legislators are working to make their state the eighth in the nation without a state income tax.

Republican North Carolina State Sen. Bob Rucho said on Wednesday that he plans to push for his state to end its state income tax and replace it with a consumption-based sales tax. Rucho told the Washington Post that the bleak economy of the last several years has made state revenues uneven, resulting in challenges for annual budget planning. 

“We want to get away from that and go to a more flat consumption-based tax on sales taxes, both goods and services, and in return, we’ll say, ‘We’ll go to zero with the income tax.’ And that’s something we think we can achieve. It just takes time to get there,” said Rucho.

The Republican majority in the North Carolina legislature successfully lowered personal and corporate income taxes, sending personal rates from 7.775% to 5.8% and corporate rates from 6.7% to as low as 3% over the next few years.  

Republican House Speaker Thom Tillis says he is optimistic state lawmakers can find common ground on ending the state’s income tax. 

“I think moving to a consumption-based model is something we can all agree on,” he said. “You have to do this in a way that you can give [businesses] a high degree of confidence.”