South Carolina’s Uncompetitive Income Tax

 HERE’S WHY WE’RE LOSING: OUR TAXES ARE HIGHER We’ve leveled a lot of criticisms at the South Carolina Department of Commerce over the last several years, and will no doubt level more in the future. Presently, however, an excellent report the agency put together in 2010 deserves for more attention than it ever got when […]

S.C. Politicians’ Talking Points: Myths vs. Facts

NOTHING WRONG WITH MYTHS … JUST DON’T REPEAT THEM AS FACT Since the conclusion of the 2013 legislative session, lawmakers have been blasting out emails that boast of the year’s accomplishments. Even allowing for politicians’ customary boasts, some of these claims are either misleading or flatly untrue. Here are a few: Taxes and Size of […]

Reforms Pass in North Carolina … But Not Here

THE REASON HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH IDEOLOGY It’s a tale of two legislative sessions. In one state, lawmakers passed significant tax reform that lowers tax rates across the board, took a meaningful step towards school choice, and expanded Second Amendment rights. In another state, lawmakers talked a big game about government restructuring, reforming the […]

Why Tax Reform Can’t Happen (Yet)

  THINK THERE ARE GREAT ARGUMENTS FOR ELIMINATING THE CORPORATE INCOME TAX? SO DOES ALMOST EVERYONE ELSE. AND YET . . .  In a red, “conservative” state like South Carolina, one would assume that our state would be among the leaders in promoting free-market policies on the state government level.  But with some of the […]

How to Create 10,000 Jobs

…MORE OR LESS. In the 1990s, politicians spoke constantly about “the children” and/or “education.” Now they tend to talk about “jobs,” as if the whole purpose of government were to create them. South Carolina’s governor and legislators, for example, tout the jobs they “create” through taxpayer handouts to already successful companies like Boeing and Amazon […]

The House Tax Plan: True Reform or Something Else?

As we’ve reported in the past, South Carolina’s tax rates are among the least competitive in the nation. Middle class families pay an inordinately high top rate, manufacturers are crippled by the state’s property tax (one of the highest in the nation), and our state’s byzantine system of exemptions keeps sales tax artificially high. And […]

A Tale of Two Tax Proposals

WELL, WHICH IS IT? Despite lawmakers’ disingenuous claims that South Carolina has some of the “lowest taxes in the nation,” the truth is that South Carolina taxpayers and businesses pay far too much to the state. The principle is simple: Taxes should be low and equitable, and South Carolina’s tax structure, for the most part, is neither. […]

SC’s Tax Structure: Good, Bad, or Just Plain Awful?

In recent months, some of our state lawmakers have spoken of South Carolina’s tax structure as if it’s the lowest, most business-friendly in the world. Some, indeed, have claimed we have the “lowest taxes in the nation.” But before you take the hype at face value, consider: 1) South Carolina does not have the “lowest taxes […]

Our Tax Burden: The Nation’s Best – or Worst?

Legislative leaders are claiming that South Carolina “has the lowest state taxes in the nation.” If only it were true. Unfortunately the claim confuses tax collections and tax rates. It’s true that the state collects fewer dollars – but those who pay taxes, pay at higher rates.

Fact Sheet on H 4478: The S.C. Economic Development Competitiveness Act of 2010

Sponsored by House Speaker Bobby Harrell and 108 other representatives, the Economic Development Competitiveness Act is the product of Speaker Harrell’s economic development working group. This 49-page bill combines a few good ideas with several bad ones. Paramount among the good ideas is the elimination of the corporate income tax. But this is clearly the […]