(VIDEO): Iowa state taxes fall heavily on working families

Senator Joe Bolkcom of Iowa City discusses how Iowa’s current tax structure places a heavy burden on Iowa families working hard to make ends meet. Currently Iowa citizens must begin paying state income tax at $19,000, making Iowa the 6th worst state in the nation when it comes to taxing low income, working people.

The Earned Income Tax Credit passed earlier this year by the Senate for the third time would provide some needed relief to working Iowans and their families. Senator Bolkcom made his comments on April 19 on the floor of the Senate chamber.

From the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities

Taxing the incomes of working-poor families runs counter to decades of efforts by policymakers across the political spectrum to help families work their way out of poverty. The federal government has exempted such families from the income tax since the mid-1980s, and a majority of states now do so as well. Since 1991, the number of states with income taxes on working-poor families of four has fallen from 24 to 15, and even in most of the remaining 15 states, the income tax liabilities of these families have declined significantly since the 1990s. Poor families paid income tax bills of several hundred dollars in 2011 in seven states. A two-parent family of four with annual income at the poverty line (which is $23,018 for a family of that size) owed $548 in Alabama, $509 in Illinois, $331 in Hawaii, $274 in Oregon, and $273 in Georgia. Iowa and Montana also levied taxes of more than $200 on families with poverty-level incomes. Such amounts can make a big difference to a family struggling to escape poverty.