Some taxes could jump

If you're not carrying a heavy debt load and are giving regularly to a charity, you come out ahead under an income tax proposal made by Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr., statistics released Wednesday show.

But if you're borrowing like mad on your home equity mortgage line of credit or are otherwise mortgaged to the hilt and you have an unusually large family, you could be looking at a state tax hike should lawmakers adopt Huntsman's plan unchanged.

A worst-case scenario under the governor's plan: A family making $275,000 a year, with eight children and heavily in debt, would face a state income tax hike of $2,425 a year. A heavily mortgaged family of five making $275,000 a year would see a $1,899 tax hike.

But a family of five making just $25,000 a year would see their current tax bill of $153 completely wiped out — they would pay no state income tax.

Other low- to middle-income, average-size families would see similar savings, the new report shows.

Utahns will get the chance to review and comment on four different kinds of state income tax changes (and a bunch of other tax code recommendations) when the Tax Reform Task Force goes on a "road show" of public hearings across the state later this month.

Wednesday, the 15-member panel made all kinds of suggestions as it readied for the hearings and its final recommendations due in November.

The task force co-chairman, Sen. Curt Bramble, R-Provo, said Huntsman is wrong in capping personal exemptions at five — a family with a dad, mom and three dependent children. And Bramble thinks the current home mortgage interest deduction should be continued in some form on state taxes. Huntsman would eliminate that deduction but give a partial deduction for charitable giving, switching it to a tax credit.

However, if lawmakers just make minor tweaks to the current state income tax system while keeping all current tax breaks, why bother, several task force members said.

By adding back in all dependent exemptions and including mortgage interest deductions, "I'm not seeing a great difference from the current system," complained Rep. Gordon Snow, R-Roosevelt. "Why reinvent the wheel if we're just back to that (current) system" — which is seen as regressive and harming economic development.

While the homebuilding and real estate industry may have some heavy political hitters, Senate Minority Leader Mike Dmitrich, D-Price, said the reality is that the home mortgage interest deduction on state income tax returns "has no effect on homebuying — (people) are using it for debt consolidation or just going into debt more."