Corporate income tax rate to be reduced next year

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) – North Carolina’s corporate income tax rate is going down further in January because state tax collections again exceeded a threshold set in a 2013 tax overhaul law.

State Budget Director Drew Heath announced Tuesday the corporate rate would fall from the current 4 percent to 3 percent in 2017 because the state in the past fiscal year generated more than $300 million above what was needed to trigger the reduction.

The group called the Tax Foundation says North Carolina’s 4 percent rate was the lowest in the country among states that levy a corporate income tax.

North Carolina’s rate was 6.9 percent in 2013 before Republicans in the legislature passed a law to reduce it over time. Gov. Pat McCrory says the upcoming reduction will keep boosting the state’s economy.

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