Magnolia State News

The NFIB State Director, Dawn McVea, has addressed the challenges faced by Mississippi's small businesses amid inflation and supply chain issues. According to McVea, there is insufficient legislative backing for eliminating the state income tax. She highlighted this as a reason for exploring other tax reforms during the current legislative session.

"Legislative leaders say it’s unlikely that any plan to eliminate the state individual income tax has the votes to pass," McVea stated. "That hurts Mississippi’s small businesses, but it underscores the need for lawmakers to pass House Bill 1733 and Senate Bill 2449."

McVea elaborated on House Bill 1733, which recently passed in the House. This bill would allow businesses to fully deduct new asset costs in the year of purchase. "HB 1733 is commonsense legislation that would ease the financial pressure on Main Street businesses struggling to recover from the economic setbacks that began with the arrival of the pandemic in 2020," she said. She expressed gratitude towards the House for passing this legislature and urged Senate support.

She also discussed Senate Bill 2449, which aims to create a sales tax exemption on software services used as business inputs. "Taxing business inputs in Mississippi is generally not done, so this legislation would rein in the overzealous Department of Revenue’s definition of this tax," McVea explained.

Emphasizing urgency, she added: "That’s why we’re urging the legislature to pass these impactful measures." According to her, while these bills may not resolve all issues faced by small businesses such as inflation and staffing shortages, they could offer necessary financial relief.