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This Montana ‘tax rebate’ is a gimmick. – City Club Missoula Presents Treasure State Taxes: Shedding Light on Montana’s Tax System Monday, August 14, 2023

July 24, 2023/

 It should be –and could have been — larger for most of us, and would be, but for Montana’s regressive property tax calculus. Ultimately, however, the problem is the very regressive state income tax, that becomes flat at 6.75% regardless of income, at and above incomes of $19,600. To its credit, Montana has avoided enacting a sales tax, which is typically very regressive.
But, as with Oregon, reliance upon property taxes for so much in our budgets is displacing people on fixed, lower incomes, from their homes and driving economic cleansing of our population. Is there a persuasive reason that the state income tax should not be much more progressive, such as, for example, stepping up the tax rates beginning with incomes at or greater than, say, $75K/yr (>$7K/mo) for individuals, with increasingly higher rates for every additional $10K of income?

 

 

To flatten the income tax at 6.75% for all incomes above $19,600 is to redistribute wealth upward and to place an inequitable burden on the unrich. The per capita personal annual income in MT as of March 31, 2023 is about $57K.. Source: U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis and Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, Per Capita Personal Income in Montana [MTPCPI], retrieved from FRED, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis;

https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/MTPCPI

, July 16, 2023.

 

But the median individual annual personal income (in 2021 dollars) in MT from 2017-2021 was ~$60,560, meaning half of us made less; median household income (in 2021 dollars) FOR THE PAST 12 MONTHS WAS ONLY $34,423/mo.

 

 

 

The percentage of Montanans in “poverty” (< 25K/yr) was 11.9% as of 2021. Source: U.S. Census, retrieved from United States Census Bureau, Quick Facts: Montana;

https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/fact/table/MT/PST045222

, July 16, 2023.

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City Club Missoula Presents Treasure State Taxes: Shedding Light on Montana’s Tax System Monday, August 14, 2023

Join City Club Missoula’s August forum as we dive deep into Montana’s Taxation System. The forum will feature current and former members of local and state government. The expert panel will provide an overview of Montana’s multifaceted system, including tax codes and rates, collections, rebates, and burdens.

 

Big corporations get tax benefits, while Montana resident get higher property taxes

By doing nothing, the Governor and supermajority Republicans ensured that residential property taxes will increase while other classes, that are already getting hefty tax breaks from the 2023 Legislature, will see their taxes drop even more significantly.

 

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