By Shannon McCaffrey
ATLANTA – A panel created by the state Legislature to revamp Georgia’s tax code on Friday recommended reinstating the 4 percent state sales tax on groceries.
The Special Council on Tax Reform and Fairness for Georgians also said the state should lower its personal income tax from 6 percent to 4 percent by 2014 and trim the corporate tax as well. The state’s 37 cent tax on a pack of cigarettes would rise to 68 cents under the panel’s plan. The council also said that Georgia should eliminate a pair of weeklong sales tax holidays.
Taken as a whole, the recommendations unveiled Friday would not bring in any more money for the state once they were implemented fully, according to council chairman A.D. Frazier.
Frazier said lowering the income tax would make Georgia more appealing to out-of-state businesses looking to relocate. And he said the movement to a structure based more on consumption-based taxes would be fairer and allow individuals to better control how much they pay to the government.