The personal income tax is the state's largest source of tax revenue. In FY 2019, West Virginia collected $2.096 billion in personal income taxes, funding nearly half of the state's base budget. West Virginia's income tax is structured so that higher-income residents pay a larger share of their income in personal income taxes compared to…
Taxes
Charleston Gazette-Mail, Huntington Herald-Dispatch - State tax collections in November continued to top expectations, likely as federal pandemic stimulus funding continues to churn the state economy. Read the full article. Justice and Revenue Secretary Dave Hardy have downplayed the impact of the infusion of more than $3 billion of federal pandemic stimulus funds into the…
Morgantown Dominion Post - Over the past several months, the Monongalia County Commission has been negotiating a “payment in lieu of taxes” (PILOT) deal with Longview Power LLC to build a gas-fired power plant. PILOT agreements are property tax abatements where corporations agree to make annual payments to local governments instead of paying the property…
Although Congress allocated $1.25 billion in state fiscal aid for West Virginia in the CARES Act that passed last month, it's highly likely this will not be enough money to shore up state and local government budgets from the economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. To make matters worse, the U.S. Treasury issued guidance on…
Crises like the coronavirus outbreak create a double challenge for state governments. Demand for vital public services escalate just as the revenues to support those services take a major downturn. West Virginia is already in a tight budget situation, with resources stretched thin. Before the effects of the crisis were really felt, the state revenues…
While the tax bills passed during the 2020 Legislative Session are awaiting the governor's approval, most of the largest tax cut proposals failed to make it across the finish line but will likely return next year. Specifically, the legislature failed to place on the November 2020 ballot a constitutional amendment to repeal part or all…
On top of Senate Bill 655 that would reduce local property tax revenues from natural gas extraction, there are also several bills moving in the House that would give sizable tax reductions to natural gas and coal corporations. House BIll 4439 would expand a 35% tax credit on the coal severance tax that was passed…
Senate Republicans unveiled their latest proposal to eliminate the business personal property tax this week, passing the proposal out of the Senate Finance Committee. The plan, which builds upon an earlier proposal to eliminate the property tax on manufacturing equipment, machinery, and inventory, would blow a nearly $100 million hole in the state budget, introduce…
We are just over halfway through West Virginia’s 60-day legislative session, and there is plenty to talk about. Let’s dive right in. Tax and Budget 2020 has seen the perennial return to eliminate the Business Personal Property Tax on manufacturing, inventory, equipment and machinery. This is a critical source of revenue for our counties’ public…
Charleston Gazette-Mail - Back in 2007, the West Virginia Legislature dramatically changed the state’s tax system, reducing business taxes by hundreds of millions of dollars per year. The package included phasing out the business franchise tax and reducing the corporate net income tax from 9 percent to 6.5 percent. Other cuts and credits would follow.…