House approves SB 4,001, creating optional single-rate income tax and expanding brackets; final vote 49-25-1

The Utah House voted to pass Senate Bill 4,001, titled “Income Tax Amendments,” sending the measure back to the Senate after a 49–25–1 roll-call vote. The bill, sponsored in the House by Representative Harper, expands several income-tax brackets and creates an optional single-rate individual income tax that taxpayers may elect to use in place of the multi-bracket system.

Representative Harper told colleagues the bill does two things: it broadens bracket ranges (Harper described the expansion as roughly 28%) to provide a tax break to every Utah taxpayer who files a return, and it creates an optional flat-rate tax of 5.35%. Harper said the bracket expansion would produce a roughly $40 million reduction in the fiscal year labeled '08 and that the full implementation fiscal estimate is about $76 million.

Floor debate…