The Missouri's 10-bracket personal income tax schedule ranges from 1.5% on taxable income up to $1,000 to 6% on taxable income over $9,000. Individuals may deduct up to $5,000 of federal taxes paid from their state liability. The corporate tax rate is 6.25% of net income, with 50% of federal corporate taxes paid deductible. The rate for financial institutions is 7%. The basic state sales tax is 4.225%, but is lowered to 1.225% for food and beverages. Prescription drugs are exempt. Local-option sales taxes range from 0.5% to 4.125%. The state also imposes a full array of excise taxes covering motor fuels, tobacco products, insurance premiums, public utilities, alcoholic beverage, amusements, and other selected items. Missouri's estate tax is tied to the federal exemption for state death taxes, and is therefore set to expire in tandem with the phasing out of the federal estate tax credit absent positive action by the state to establish an independent estate tax. Missouri's' revenue losses from the phasing out of its estate tax are estimated at -$30 million for 2002/03, -$72 million for 2003/04, and -$187 million for 2006/07. Death and gift taxes accounted for 1.5% of state collections in 2002. Other state taxes include an assessment on surface mining, various license fees and franchise taxes, and state property taxes, although most property taxes are collected locally. Property and sales taxes are the leading sources of local revenue. In 2002, 44.6% of all state and local taxes were collected locally.
The state collected $8.677 billion in taxes in 2002, of which 41.6% came from individual income taxes, 32.9% came from the general sales tax, 14.8% from selective sales taxes, 5.36% from license fees, and 3.5% from corporate income taxes. In 2003, Missouri ranked 34th among the states in terms of combined state and local tax burden, which amounted to about 9.2% of income.
The following table from the US Census Bureau provides a summary of taxes collected by the state in 2002.
($000) | PER CAPITA | |
Total Taxes | 8,678,611 | 1,529.92 |
Property taxes | 20,459 | 3.61 |
Sales and gross receipts | 4,140,210 | 729.86 |
General sales and gross receipts | 2,854,718 | 503.25 |
Selective sales taxes | 1,285,492 | 226.62 |
Alcoholic beverage | 25,907 | 4.57 |
Amusements | 220,474 | 38.87 |
Insurance Premiums | 217,173 | 38.28 |
Motor fuels | 692,448 | 122.07 |
Pari-mutuels | (X) | (X) |
Public utilities | 304 | 0.05 |
Tobacco products | 106,817 | 18.83 |
Other selective sales | 22,369 | 3.94 |
Licenses | 465,484 | 82.06 |
Alcoholic beverages | 4,396 | 0.77 |
Amusements | 877 | 0.15 |
Corporation | 18,343 | 3.23 |
Hunting and fishing | 28,716 | 5.06 |
Motor vehicle | 237,166 | 41.81 |
Motor vehicle operators | 21,060 | 3.71 |
Public utility | 19,199 | 3.38 |
Occupation and business, NEC | 125,910 | 22.2 |
Other | 9,817 | 1.73 |
Other taxes | 4,052,458 | 714.39 |
Individual income | 3,615,417 | 637.35 |
Corporation net income | 302,301 | 53.29 |
Death and gift | 134,256 | 23.67 |
Documentary and stock transfer | (X) | (X) |
Severance | 33 | 0.01 |
Other | 451 | 0.08 |