Reynauld Songy
May 7, 2007Steve Collins
May 9, 2007A House committee last Tuesday passed two tax breaks for businesses, supported by Gov. Kathleen Blanco, but delayed votes on bills that would eliminate taxes on cash gifts and the remnants of the state’s “death tax.”
Two lawmakers have bills that would eliminate the vestiges of Louisiana’s old “death tax.” That law was largely repealed in 2004, but one provision remains: people who inherit money must pay taxes on certain inheritances if they don’t begin the legal succession process within nine months of the death.
Rep. Mike Strain, R-Covington, and Taylor Townsend, D-Natchitoches, are sponsors of measures to eliminate the tax, which ranges from 2 percent to 7 percent on inherited money. Spouses are exempt from the tax, but not children or other people who inherit money.
Townsend, chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, said it was clear that the inheritance tax is a problem, but the panel put off a vote on the measure because after he said it was unclear how much it would cost the state in tax revenue.
The committee also delayed action, at Townsend’s request, on a bill that would repeal the state’s tax on cash gifts _ money given by parents to children, for instance. Louisiana is one of only four states with such a law, and Rep. Hunter Greene, R-Baton Rouge, has a bill to repeal it.
Strain and Townsend are sponsors of similar bills, as are Reps. Nicholas Larusso, R-New Orleans and Eric LaFleur, D-Ville Platte.
The committee approved two business tax breaks that Blanco is supporting, after trying and failing to get them through the Legislature last year:
• Speed up the enactment of tax breaks passed in 2004 to benefit auto manufacturers. The measure would help the General Motors plant in northwest Louisiana, and Blanco has said it could help also lure an auto manufacturing plant to the state.
• Tax exemptions for interstate trucking firms, designed to prevent such companies from leaving Louisiana and doing business in Texas and Oklahoma.
