Here are a few numbers every taxpayer should know:
5.25%: That’s the North Carolina personal income tax rate, the tax you pay on your income!
7.0% : This is the sales tax you pay on the goods and services you buy every day. The state gets 4.75% and the city or county where you live gets 2.25%. It’s a flat 7.0% throughout Harnett and Lee counties except for the city of Angier, where you pay 7.25%.
2.50%: This is the corporate income tax rate, the amount the businesses who sell you goods and services pay on their profits. North Carolina has decided to lower this rate incrementally until 2030, when corporations will pay 0% income tax.
That’s right. 0% income tax. As in nothing. Nada. Zip. Zilch. Zero.
Less than 8 years from now.
When corporations pay nothing, people pay more. Or the state has to spend less. Which means fewer potholes filled; fewer cops on the beat; less money for teachers and schools.
Now let’s look at a few other numbers:
52%: This is the percentage of the state’s $25.9 billion budget funded by individual income taxes. You know, the money YOU pay on the income YOU earn!
32%: This is the percentage of the budget funded by sales taxes. You know, the money YOU pay on what YOU buy!
3%: This is the percentage of the budget paid by corporate income taxes!
Remember, in another few years that number will be 0%. Ask yourself this: If the 3% that corporations pay goes down, do you think the amount individuals pay will go up?
When corporations pay nothing, people pay it all!
The legislature thinks that if it eliminates corporate income taxes, businesses will flock to North Carolina with well-paying jobs and that the taxes from those who have the jobs will support state and local governments. That’s fine if you happen to have one of those well-paying jobs at Apple or Amazon or the new Vietnamese electric car maker VinFast, which is coming to Chatham County.
But here’s the thing: If you want one of those well-paying jobs with VinFast, you have to move to Chatham County. And if you want to run some form of support business, you have to move there as well.
What if you and your family like living in Harnett, Lee or Sampson counties? What benefit from VinFast coming to Chatham County do you get? If there’s a corporate income tax in place, you benefit from tax revenue that might, just might, keep your personal income taxes from going up.
But what do you get if the corporate income tax rate is 0%? You get nothing. Nada. Zip. Zilch. Zero! Plus the very real chance that personal income taxes will rise or services will lessen. Does that seem fair to you?
Bringing businesses to North Carolina is great, but not if we have to give away the store to do it.
I say stop the slide of corporate income taxes to zero and make big business pay its fair share! The way to do that is to replace the people in the legislature who started the tax slide with people willing to stop it. Richard Chapman is one of those.
Make taxes better for people. Elect Chapman to State Senate in District 12!