07/06/2026
Sorry this is so long but once you research the outcome of this bill it “kind of” makes a person upset. On Amendment 5 if the voters in Missouri pass this, it will do away with the Missouri Income Tax as it reduces over several years to zero and replace it with a higher Sales Tax rate. This sounds all well and good. Except that for 2024 the Missouri Income Tax was over 32% of General Revenue and the Missouri Sales Tax was about 10.4% of the Missouri General Revenue. Another source of Revenue will have to be found to keep from cutting the State budget. But; what actually is going to happen is that we (the taxpayers) of Missouri are going to give the Missouri legislators OUR APPROVAL to go ahead and raise the current sales tax rate and to replace the Income Tax over the next 5 years. Apparently; though, any sales tax exemption voted prior to January 1, 2015 supposedly is supposed to still be exempt from sales tax. All at their "whim" and we the voters will have no say in this tax increase. All this will ONLY aid the roughly 175,000 Millionaires and Billionaires who reside in Missouri. The rest of the Missouri population will pick up the burden of increased other taxes without the state income tax.
Currently under Missouri Law if the state legislature wants to increase any current sales tax rate for the State or charge sales tax on a new item (say automobile repair labor or childcare) they have to go to us; THE VOTERS for approval to make this happen. But, under this Amendment 5 a Yes vote allows them to raise the current Missouri Sales Tax to REPLACE the eliminated Income Tax.
Currently California has a base sales tax rate of 7.25% (which is the highest in the USA) and Missouri’s base sales tax rate is 4.225%. ( #38 in the USA). That’s only a 3.03% difference and I wonder if we won’t end up with over a 7.25% sales tax rate making us the highest sales tax in the USA.
YOU the TAXPAYER are not gaining anything from this Amendment. YOU WILL spend more on this increased sales tax than you did with the Income Tax Do you want to give the Missouri Legislature and Governor that much authority and control over WE THE VOTERS OF MISSOURI.