A new year brings new laws and expires others

WILMINGTON, NC (WWAY)– A new year brings new laws.

Starting Thursday taxes will drop for some corporations and people, but film and taxi drivers will see some major changes.

There are several changes in North Carolina’s laws that took effect. One of the biggest changes a local actor says Wilmington faces is expiring film incentives. A 25 percent tax credit for TV and film productions is now gone.

It’s an incentive that local actor David Reid says brought so many films and so many people to Wilmington for years.

“So many people depend on this and it brings so much money into this town and to this actual state,” Reid said.

The tax credit that allowed producers to forego paying $61 million in state taxes is replaced by a grant program capped at $10 million. Reid says that is what has sent film not just out of Wilmington, but out of this state.

“Nobody wants to come film here when they do not feel welcome,” Reid said. “These people are not feeling welcome. They don’t want to come here. They just want to go to Atlanta or or to Louisiana where it’s easy to film.”

A few other laws also go in effect today.

The corporate income tax drops from 6 percent to 5 percent and individual income taxes drop from 5.8 percent to 5.75 percent.

Taxi drivers are losing their ability to claim a quarterly refund on the gasoline excise tax for the fuel they bought.

The Wildlife Resources Commission faces new restrictions on how high it can raise fees on hunting, fishing and trapping licenses. Starting in 2015, the fees cannot be raised above a commonly used measure of inflation averaged over the past five years.