Giarrusso bill targets state income tax code

PROVIDENCE – Rep. Anthony Giarrusso, R-East Greenwich, is sponsoring legislation designed to prevent Rhode Island taxpayers from being double-taxed on their state income tax refund.
Giarrusso says revamping this section of the state’s tax code will help ease up regulations on state taxpayers.
“One of the biggest problems in Rhode Island is, of course, that we pay one of the highest tax rates in the country, and we’re doing nothing to ease up on the hardworking taxpayers of this state,” he said in a statement. “Furthermore, I don’t think people are aware what’s happening. Tax season has just ended, and many Rhode Islanders are receiving refund checks from overpaying taxes.”
The legislation would exclude state tax refunds, paid to an individual in the previous year, from federal adjusted gross income, from the purposes of the state income tax and has an estimated cost attached to it of $15 million to $17 million annually.
“There is an inequity within our current laws, which needs to be addressed, but no one is doing anything about it, because the state collects approximately $14 million a year from the current structure,” he continued. “It is a rip off, and I hope my fellow lawmakers come to their sensees and help ease up on taxpayers, who currently have the fifth-highest tax burden of any state.”
Reps. Michael W. Chippendale, Robert A. Nardolillo, Daniel P. Reilly, and Sherry Roberts also signed onto the bill, which was scheduled to be heard last week in the House Finance Committee.

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