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SPONSOR: |
Coll |
DATE TYPED: |
|
HB |
943 |
||
SHORT TITLE: |
Personal Income Surtax for Wildlife Programs |
SB |
|
||||
|
ANALYST: |
Neel |
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REVENUE
Estimated Revenue |
Subsequent Years Impact |
Recurring or
Non-Rec |
Fund Affected |
|
FY03 |
FY04 |
|
|
|
|
$3,200.0 |
$3,200.0 |
Recurring |
New
Wildlife Conservation Fund |
|
|
|
|
|
(Parenthesis ( ) Indicate Revenue Decreases)
Relates to:
HB
240, Personal Income Surtax for Wildlife Programs
LFC files
Responses
Received From
Taxation and Revenue Department (TRD)
Department of Game and Fish (DGF)
SUMMARY
Synopsis
of Bill
House Bill 943 creates a new section of the Tax Administration Act that
distributes a portion of the State’s personal income tax receipts to a newly
created fund in the State Treasury. The
bill would create a new tax assessment in addition to existing taxes in the
amount of two dollars ($2.00) for each
federal exemption allowable for federal income tax purposes for each individual
included in the return, or twelve dollars ($12.00), whichever is less. This surtax would be referred to as the Wildlife Conservation Surtax. The revenue generated would be deposited
into the newly created Wildlife
Conservation Fund. Beginning with
fiscal year 2005, the legislature would be able to appropriate money in this
fund for use by the Department of Game and Fish. The bill lists allowed uses of the
funds. The major uses are to fund the
operations of the Conservation Services Division, the Wildlife Conservation Act
and to acquire, lease, develop, land for wildlife habitat.
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS
According to TRD, 828 thousand personal income tax
returns were filed with the state in tax year 2001. These were distributed as
follows: 318 thousand were married filing joint returns; 367 thousand were
single returns; 8 thousand consisted of separate returns, while 135 thousand
were filed by heads of household. The federal exemption generally totaled
$2,900 per dependent in Tax Year 2001.
The estimate above assumes single filers will each
pay $2 per return, joint filers will pay an average of $5.80 per return, separate
filers will pay an average of $2.56 per return, and individuals filing as heads
of household will pay an average of $5.04 per return.
These figures were developed partially by dividing
the total number of exemptions claimed by the number of filers in each
category, and are somewhat imprecise because: 1) there is no way to know how
many exemptions taxpayers were allowed based on state tax return data,
2) the standard $2,900 exemption amount varies to some extent with income, and
3) in some cases – families with four children or more – taxpayers would opt
for the $12 per return surcharge allowed by the proposal, rather than
multiplying the number of dependents by $2.
Note: TRD’s assumptions do not to calculate
population growth in the number of individuals filing tax returns.
SN/njw