House committee to take up bill changing business profits tax threshold

By: Annmarie Timmins - April 30, 2021 2:25 pm

The Department of Military Affairs and Veterans Services is seeking money for a woodchuck “control program.” (Getty Images)

This story was updated May 3, 2021 at 8:30 a.m. to correct the House committee hearing the bill.

Fewer New Hampshire businesses will have to pay the business profits tax under a bill before the House Ways and Means Committee Tuesday.

Senate Bill 101 would raise the income threshold that determines which businesses pay the tax from $50,000 to $75,000.

The Department of Revenue Administration has told lawmakers it could not predict how much the state would lose in future revenue under the bill without knowing how many businesses will have qualifying incomes. Based on 2018 figures, the department estimates it could reduce business profits tax revenue by about $1.5 million a year.

Of the 74,343 taxpayers who filed business profits tax returns in 2018, 4,664 reported gross income between $50,001 and $75,000, the department said. Of those, only 660 were required to pay the tax, for a total of $1.5 million.

The Senate voted unanimously to pass the bill in March. Sen. Donna Soucy, a Manchester Democrat and a cosponsor of the bill, said at the hearing the change would take a burden off businesses at a time when many are struggling.

The House Labor Committee is scheduled to hold a work session that will be livestreamed at 10:15 a.m. Tuesday.

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Annmarie Timmins

Senior reporter Annmarie Timmins is a New Hampshire native who covered state government, courts, and social justice issues for the Concord Monitor for 25 years. During her time with the Monitor, she won a Nieman Fellowship to study journalism and mental health courts at Harvard for a year. She has taught journalism at the University of New Hampshire and writing at the Nackey S. Loeb School of Communications.