Utah: “Tax Reform” Provisions Repealed

In December 2019, “tax reform” legislation (Senate Bill 2001) was signed into law in Utah that generally expanded the sales tax base to include certain services, increased the sales and use tax rate imposed on food and food ingredients, reduced the individual and corporate income tax rate from 4.95 percent to 4.66 percent, and made certain other individual and motor fuels tax changes.  Senate Bill 2001 was not passed with a 2/3 majority vote in each house and was therefore subject to a citizen’s referendum. Opponents of the measure were able to gather the required number of signatures to place a repeal measure on the November ballot. Almost immediately after the signatures were verified, lawmakers voted to repeal Senate Bill 2001. Governor Hebert signed the repeal measure (House Bill 185) on January 28, 2020.  Lawmakers were quoted as saying that the repeal was, at least in part, necessary to “enable the legislature to draft the budget without the uncertainty of a referendum potentially changing the tax code midway through the budget year.” It is unclear whether the Legislature will revisit tax reform during the 2020 session. Please stay tuned to TWIST for future legislative updates.