Senate Bill No. 308
(By Senators Oliverio, Manchin and Kimble)
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[Introduced February 9, 1995; referred to the Committee
on Finance.]
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A BILL to amend and reenact section one, article twenty-one,
chapter eleven of the code of West Virginia, one thousand
nine hundred thirty-one, as amended; and to further amend
said article by adding thereto a new section, designated
section four-g, all relating to legislative findings; and
exempting persons from income tax who make ten thousand
dollars or less annually.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That section one, article twenty-one, chapter eleven of the
code of West Virginia, one thousand nine hundred thirty-one, as
amended, be amended and reenacted; and that said article be
further amended by adding thereto a new section, designated section four-g, all to read as follows:
ARTICLE 21. PERSONAL INCOME TAX.
§11-21-1. Legislative findings.
(a) The Legislature hereby finds and declares that the
adoption by this state for its personal income tax purposes of
the provisions of the laws of the United States relating to the
determination of income for federal income tax purposes will (1)
simplify preparation of state income tax returns by taxpayers,
(2) improve enforcement of the state income tax through better
use of information obtained from federal income tax audits, and
(3) aid interpretation of the state tax law through increased use
of federal judicial and administrative determinations and
precedents.
(b) The Legislature further finds and declares that tax
policy is a legitimate instrument for state government to utilize
in efforts to stimulate small business and that too often the tax
policies in force have had an opposite effect.
(c) The Legislature further recognizes that the level of
poverty in this state is among the highest in the country while
per capita income is among the lowest and that reducing the
personal income tax will serve to reverse these troubling statistical trends.
(d) The Legislature further finds and declares that persons
who earn no more than ten thousand dollars a year should not be
required to pay income tax as the administrative costs involved
in collecting tax from these individuals far outweigh any
legitimate purpose or fiscal benefit achieved by the collection
thereof.
The Legislature does, therefore, declare that this article
be construed so as to accomplish the foregoing purposes.
§11-21-4g. No tax to be levied on personal adjusted gross
income of ten thousand dollars or less.
For taxable years beginning on and after the first day of
January, one thousand nine hundred ninety-five, no resident
individual of this state whose adjusted gross earned income is
ten thousand dollars or less is required to pay any amount in
personal income tax to the state notwithstanding any other
provision of law to the contrary. If the West Virginia taxable
income is not over ten thousand dollars, the tax is zero percent
of the taxable income.
NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to exempt West Virginia
residents who have an adjusted gross earned income of ten
thousand dollars or less from paying state income tax. It
includes legislative findings that support the tax reduction.
Strike-throughs indicate language that would be stricken
from the present law, and underscoring indicates new language
that would be added.
§11-21-4g is new; therefore, strike-throughs and
underscoring are omitted.