Flat-rate five percent income tax proposed for Utah

• Utah should have a flat-rate income tax of 5 percent, a high-powered tax task force recommended Monday.
• Deseret Morning News graphic State residents should also get 50 percent tax credits for charitable gifts and home mortgage interest on their income taxes.
• And the Legislature should remove the much-hated sales tax from unprepared food, the Task Reform Task Force recommends, although it didn't specify which of the proposed food tax plans should be adopted by legislators next year.
• The new 5 percent income tax plan will have some "winners and some losers" as far as who pays a bit more or a bit less in tax, said Rep. John Dougall, R-Highland.
• The 15-member task force has held dozens of official meetings --- not including countless private sessions between some members --- and half a dozen public hearings to come up with 20 or so specific tax reform recommendations for the Legislature.
• Several weeks ago, House Speaker Greg Curtis, R-Sandy, and Urquhart suggested removing the sales tax from food and increasing the sales tax rate slightly on nonfood items so the state doesn't lose all of the $166 million the food tax brings in.
• Not recommending a specific change, as the task force has done with its other proposals, "is a cop-out," said task force member Rep. Gordon Snow, R-Roosevelt.
• Snow said the task force, which includes House and Senate leaders from both parties, Huntsman chief of staff Neil Ashdown and Utah Tax Commission Chairwoman Pam Hendrickson, has a duty to be specific on which tax changes are the best.
• The state could end the year with $300 million in surplus if tax collections remain strong.
• In fact, the task force ended up recommending more than $100 million in tax cuts --- even larger tax cuts if some of the "conceptual" tax changes are all given at one time.