Taxes
Kentucky’s ‘rainy day’ fund reaches new heights due to tax revenue surplus
FRANKFORT — Kentucky’s budget reserve trust fund, commonly known as the “rainy day” fund, now sits at more than $3.7 billion in large part due to record tax revenues brought in by the state during the last fiscal year.? State Budget Director John Hicks told state lawmakers at an interim committee meeting Wednesday the budget […]
Kentucky reports another record surplus. Will it lead to a third income tax cut?
Kentucky brought in a record $15.1 billion in general fund tax revenue during the last fiscal year — the most ever — buoyed by a strong jobs market, increasing salaries and wages and continued industry profits, the state budget director’s office announced Monday. Revenue in fiscal year 2023 exceeded budgeted expectations by about $1.4 billion, […]
Beshear releases tax returns
Gov. Andy Beshear on Monday released his federal and state income tax returns, showing he and wife Britainy had $194,094 in gross income in 2023. Of that amount, $150,835 came from his salary as governor. The rest was mainly from dividends and interest. A news release from the governor’s office said: “For the seventh consecutive […]
IRS slated to hire thousands of workers, boost audits of wealthy taxpayers
WASHINGTON — The Internal Revenue Service on Thursday detailed its plan to spend $80 billion in additional funding that Democrats approved last year as part of their climate change and health care package. The plan says the agency will boost tax enforcement by increasing its “focus on segments of taxpayers with complex issues and complex […]
Beshear signs phase out of tax on aging bourbon, despite local officials’ pleas
FRANKFORT — Without fanfare, Gov. Andy Beshear on Friday signed a bill giving ?Kentucky’s bourbon industry a property tax break on barrels of aging whiskey. Unlike bills legalizing sports gambling and medical marijuana, Beshear held no signing ceremony for House Bill 5. Distillers had been asking for the tax’s repeal for some time, while local […]
House passes tax break for bourbon industry as local governments warn of fiscal ‘devastation’
The Kentucky House of Representatives approved a move Monday to gradually end a property tax on bourbon barrels — a vote that divided both political parties — the ramifications of which some local governments say will lead their communities to fiscal “devastation.” House Bill 5, sponsored by Rep. Jason Petrie, R-Elkton, would slowly lift the […]
Beshear signs Republican legislature’s income tax cut into law
FRANKFORT — Gov. Andy Beshear has signed the Republican legislature’s top priority, another cut in the state income tax, although the Democratic governor said lowering the sales tax would have helped more Kentuckians. Facing reelection this year, ?Beshear said in a video Friday that he decided to sign the legislation, which most Democratic lawmakers had […]
Income tax cut bill passed through the Kentucky Senate, headed to governor’s desk
The GOP-controlled Kentucky Senate passed legislation Wednesday afternoon along party lines that would further cut the state’s income tax to 4%, sending the bill to the desk of Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear who remains mum on whether he’ll veto the tax cut.? House Bill 1, highlighted by Republican lawmakers as a priority to pass well […]
Income tax cut bill passes easily out of Kentucky Senate committee
A top priority for Republicans in the Kentucky legislature, a bill that would further cut the state’s income tax, sped out of a Senate committee easily Wednesday morning. The comments of support by GOP lawmakers for House Bill 1 and testimony critical of the bill mirrored past discussion surrounding the legislation when it sailed through […]
Income tax cut, a GOP priority, sails out of Kentucky House
FRANKFORT — A bill that would continue to cut the income tax in Kentucky, a top Republican priority, sailed out of the House on a party-line 79-19 vote Thursday afternoon. The vote, which was followed by applause on the floor, took place on the third day of the session and about six hours after House […]