AUGUSTA, Ga. – Georgia Governor Brian Kemp held a ceremony Thursday morning in Augusta to sign a tax cut package into law, including a bill to accelerate the reduction of state income taxes.
In 2022, a bill was passed to reduce the state income tax each year until it reached 4.9% by 2029. And in 2024, Georgia lawmakers signed HB 1437, which dropped the state’s income tax from 5.75% to 5.49%.
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The legislation signed Thursday amended that bill.
HB 1015 speeds up the process of reducing the state’s income tax and it lowers this year’s income tax to 5.39%, instead of 5.49%.
That rate will be reduced by 0.10% annually beginning on January 1, 2025, until the rate reaches 4.99%, according to the legislation.
“Washington D.C. politicians are currently working to raise taxes on hardworking Americans, but here in Georgia we are keeping to our commitment to grow our economy and opportunity for the people of our state, not government,” Kemp said.
In addition to HB 1015, the governor also signed the following bills:
HB 1023: Lowers the corporate income tax rate from 5.75% for Tax Year 2024 to 5.39% by matching the corporate income tax rate to the individual income tax rate for the corresponding year.
HB 581: Enables a constitutional amendment (HR 1022) to be decided to allow counties to provide a statewide homestead valuation freeze, which limits the appreciation of property values to the inflation rate. HB 581 also provides a special local option sales tax for counties and municipalities to provide for property tax relief.
HB 1021: Increases the state’s income tax dependent exemption by 33%, so that each taxpayer would be allowed to deduct $4,000 per dependent rather than the current $3,000 per dependent.
SB 496: Expands the criteria for a home to be certified as historic and extends the sunsets for the tax credits for rehabilitation of historic homes and structures to December 31, 2029, and for the tax credits for rural zone revitalization to December 31, 2032.