Income tax reduction bill heads to floor of Idaho House of Representatives
A mirror reflects Idaho House Speaker Mike Moyle, R-Star, as he answers a reporter's question during a press conference on Jan. 6, 2025, at the Statehouse in Boise. (Pat Sutphin for the Idaho Capital Sun)
A bill seeking to reduce Idaho's individual and corporate income tax rates from 5.695% to 5.3% is advancing to the floor of the Idaho House of Representatives.
On Thursday, the Idaho Legislature's House Revenue and Taxation Committee voted to advance House Bill 40, which is sponsored by House Speaker Mike Moyle, R-Star.
House Bill 40 is part of Moyles' effort to reduce taxes by more than $400 million this year through a combination of three different bills.
'All of you that know, know, that every year I bring a tax relief bill,' Moyle said Thursday at the Idaho State Capitol in Boise. 'Those of you that know me know that the only reason I ran for the Legislature is to cut taxes. This is probably the largest income tax relief we've ever provided or offered to the citizens of Idaho.'
Rep. Steve Berch, D-Boise, opposed the bill after saying he is not sure if the state can afford to reduce revenue by more than $400 million through tax cuts and still pay for everything in the state budget and keep up with deferred maintenance at public schools.
'We don't have a revenue number and a budget yet to determine if we can, in fact, afford this bill,' Berch said. 'The future of the over $6 billion that we get from the federal government in the face of the Department of Government Efficiency, DOGE, and other executive orders – we don't know how that's going to impact the state of Idaho. That can have a huge impact.'
Under House Bill 40, an Idaho family earning between $55,000 and $91,000 would expect to see a tax break of about $127, according to the nonpartisan Idaho Center for Fiscal Policy. Meanwhile, the top 1% of Idaho earners making $738,300 and above would receive a tax cut of about $5,358, according to the Idaho Center for Fiscal Policy.
In addition to reducing the individual and corporate income tax rates, House Bill 40 makes two other changes.
It expands the income tax exemption for military pensions.
It eliminates the capital gains tax on the sale of gold bullion.
Moyle said eliminating capital gains tax on gold bullion sales was deliberate.
'We're doing that because, quite frankly, we all know that nobody's paying taxes on it anyways,' Moyle said during Thursday's hearing. 'We can't track it. And we're also doing it because Idaho is a great state which is rich in resources, and we want to encourage more of that kind of activity, or commercial activity on those things here.'
Idaho campaign finance records show that the North Carolina-based Sound Money Defense League spent $44,786 supporting Moyle's 2024 re-election effort. Campaign finance records show the Sound Money Defense League, which according to its website, aims to 'restore gold and silver to its historic role as America's constitutional money,' contributed the most money supporting Moyle.
On its website, the Sound Money Defense League has a page highlighting Idaho gold and silver tax laws and says it 'is working closely with legislators and in-state allies to provide avenues of escape from the Federal Reserve's damaging inflationary monetary policy.'
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Campaign finance records do not list any other contributions from the Sound Money Defense League supporting Idaho political candidates other than Moyle.
House Bill 40 is the first of three tax cut bills introduced in recent days in the Idaho House of Representatives.
House Bill 74 is designed to reduce property taxes by providing a one-time transfer of $50 million to the state's homeowners property tax relief fund and another $50 million every year to help pay for local school construction and renovation projects that would otherwise be funded with property taxes.
House Bill 61 would increase the tax credit for groceries from $120 a year to $155 a year for Idaho taxpayers
House Bill 40, the income tax bill, heads next to the floor of the Idaho House of Representatives with the House Revenue and Taxation Committee's recommendation to pass it.
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