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Senate · Engrossed · 2025-2026 Regular Session

SB 477: Income Taxes; personal income tax rate; reduce

Last action February 18, 2026 · House Second Readers

Senate Bill 477 would cut Georgia's personal income tax rate in stages down to 3.99 percent, lower the corporate and partnership tax rate to 4.99 percent, and roughly double the standard deduction for individuals.

Read the full bill text

These buttons carry the bill's own text, not the summaries below. Copy for LLM, View as markdown, and Send to AI use the Markdown version: the text as filed, then the summaries under a heading that names them as ours. View raw is the text alone.

The summaries below were written by an AI model (claude-sonnet-5) from the text of the bill and are not part of it. Quote the text, not the summary. The stored text is the Engrossed version, the latest the General Assembly's website lists.

In plain language

Georgia currently taxes personal income at a flat rate that was set to gradually fall from 5.19 percent toward 4.99 percent over several years. This bill speeds up and extends that schedule: the rate would be 4.99 percent for the 2026 tax year, 4.49 percent for 2027, and 3.99 percent for 2028 and afterward. It also lowers the bar for delaying a scheduled cut, requiring the Governor's revenue estimate to rise by only 1 percent (instead of 3 percent) for the reduction to proceed on schedule. The bill also sets the corporate income tax rate and the tax rate paid by electing S corporations and partnerships at 4.99 percent, rather than tying those rates to the individual rate. It raises the standard deduction from state taxable income to $32,000 for married couples filing jointly (up from $24,000) and to $16,000 for single filers or heads of household (up from $12,000). The changes would take effect July 1, 2026, and apply to tax years beginning on or after January 1, 2026.

What the bill does

  • Sets the personal income tax rate at 4.99 percent for 2026, 4.49 percent for 2027, and 3.99 percent for 2028 and later years, replacing the prior gradual 0.10 percent annual reduction schedule.
  • Lowers the revenue-growth threshold that can delay a scheduled tax cut, from requiring a 3 percent rise in the Governor's revenue estimate to only a 1 percent rise.
  • Fixes the corporate income tax rate at 4.99 percent instead of tying it to whatever the individual income tax rate happens to be each year.
  • Sets the tax rate for electing S corporations and partnerships at 4.99 percent of their net income, delinking it from the individual rate.
  • Raises the standard deduction from state taxable income to $32,000 for married couples filing jointly and $16,000 for single filers, heads of household, or married people filing separately.
  • Ends the annual rate-reduction review process once the individual rate reaches 3.99 percent instead of 4.99 percent.

Who it affects

Georgia individual taxpayers who pay the state personal income tax, domestic and foreign corporations doing business in Georgia, owners of partnerships and S corporations that elect to pay entity-level tax, and state budget officials, including the Office of Planning and Budget, who track revenue triggers for the rate cuts.

Why it matters

Most Georgia wage earners, business owners, and corporations would see lower state income tax bills as rates fall toward 3.99 percent for individuals and 4.99 percent for entities, while a bigger standard deduction would shrink taxable income further for people who don't itemize. The lowered revenue-growth trigger makes it easier for future scheduled cuts to actually take effect rather than being delayed.

Key provisions

  • Section 1 rewrites O.C.G.A. § 48-7-20 to set fixed personal income tax rates by year: 4.99 percent (2026), 4.49 percent (2027), and 3.99 percent (2028 onward), replacing the old incremental reduction formula.
  • Section 1 also changes the delay trigger in paragraph (2), lowering the required revenue estimate growth from 3 percent to 1 percent above the prior year's estimate.
  • Section 1 states the annual reporting and delay process ends once the rate reaches 3.99 percent rather than the previous 4.99 percent stopping point.
  • Section 2 amends O.C.G.A. § 48-7-21 to set a flat 4.99 percent corporate income tax rate and the same rate for electing S corporations, instead of matching the individual rate.
  • Section 3 amends O.C.G.A. § 48-7-23 to set the same 4.99 percent rate for electing partnerships' net income.
  • Section 4 amends O.C.G.A. § 48-7-27 to raise the standard deduction to $32,000 for joint filers and $16,000 for single filers, heads of household, or separate filers.
  • Section 5 makes the Act effective July 1, 2026, applying to tax years beginning on or after January 1, 2026.

From the bill

“(A) For the taxable year beginning on January 1, 2026, 4.99 percent; (B) For the taxable year beginning on January 1, 2027, 4.49 percent; and (C) For taxable years beginning on or after January 1, 2028, 3.99 percent”

Sets the new schedule of personal income tax rate cuts for 2026 through 2028 and beyond.

Discussed in meetings (8)

The House and Senate meetings that took this bill up, from their machine transcripts. Each account was written by Georgia Commons with AI and is not part of the record; the video is what was said.

  1. Senate Finance Committee, February 9, 2026

    From 1:09:05 · Watch on the General Assembly's Vimeo channel

    Summary by Georgia Commons: During an initial comparison of the proposals, the sponsor said SB 477 would provide further income-tax rate reductions tied to revenue conditions, while additional legislation would be needed to reach the Senate's stated goal of eliminating the tax within six years. In the formal presentation, the sponsor said the bill assumed passage of the governor's proposed rate cut and would then reduce the rate to 4.49% in January 2027 and 3.99% in January 2028 if revenue conditions were met. The sponsor said it would lower a revenue-growth requirement from 3% to 1%, arguing that additional revenue should be returned to taxpayers facing higher household costs. One committee member questioned whether the cuts would leave enough money for mental health, disability, Medicaid and correctional services, citing long waiting lists and arguing that individual tax savings could not replace public service systems. The sponsor said more than $2 billion had been put into the state's behavioral health and developmental disabilities system during the sponsor's tenure as appropriations chair and said hospital expansion was being pursued. The committee approved the bill 9-3.

  2. Senate Rules Committee, February 11, 2026

    From 0:09:21 · Watch on the General Assembly's Vimeo channel

    Summary by Georgia Commons: The committee chair who had handled the bills initially said they thought the tax credit provisions were in SB 477, while noting they would need to check. The chair then described the bill as eliminating income tax for households filing jointly with income up to $100,000 and individual filers with income up to $50,000, along with tax credit provisions that were not explained further. The other committee chair confirmed that description and later confirmed that HB 463 was its duplicate. The committee unanimously approved placing all four bills on the next day's floor calendar.

  3. Senate floor session, February 12, 2026 (legislative day 18)

    From 1:17:40 · Watch on the General Assembly's Vimeo channel · Confirmed by the bill's status history (Senate Engrossed)

    Summary by Georgia Commons: The Senate voted 31 to 21 to block floor amendments to this bill and SB 476, despite minority members' objections about participation and review. Presenting the bill later, the sponsor described it as an alternative to the larger deduction proposal. The sponsor said it would reduce the income-tax rate from 5.19% to 4.99%, then allow half-percentage-point annual reductions when revenue exceeded the previous year's revenue by more than 1%, reaching 3.99% in 2028. The sponsor preferred SB 476 but wanted another option for negotiations with the House. One opposing senator warned that revenue losses would eventually require service cuts or higher sales taxes. Asked about support for middle-class relief, that senator supported higher deductions but questioned how lost revenue would be replaced. A second opponent criticized the missing written fiscal analysis and estimated a $4.1 billion cost, with 69% of benefits going to the top 20% of earners. In closing, the sponsor challenged that opponent's use of detailed estimates while criticizing the absence of an analysis. The bill passed 31 to 14.

Status timeline

  1. 2026-02-18House Second Readers (House)
  2. 2026-02-17House First Readers (House)
  3. 2026-02-12Senate Passed/Adopted (Senate)
  4. 2026-02-12Senate Third Read (Senate)
  5. 2026-02-12Senate Engrossed (Senate)
  6. 2026-02-11Senate Read Second Time (Senate)
  7. 2026-02-10Senate Committee Favorably Reported (Senate)
  8. 2026-02-09Senate Read and Referred (Senate)
Show full history (9 actions)
  1. 2026-02-06Senate Hopper (Senate)

Sponsors

  • Blake Tillery (R, SD-19)Primary sponsor
  • Larry Walker, III (R, SD-20)
  • Jason Anavitarte (R, SD-31)
  • Steve Gooch (R, SD-51)
  • Randy Robertson (R, SD-29)
  • Greg Dolezal (R, SD-27)
  • Shawn Still (R, SD-48)
  • Bo Hatchett (R, SD-50)
  • Chuck Hufstetler (R, SD-52)
  • Bill Cowsert (R, SD-46)
  • Ben Watson (R, SD-1)
  • Mike Hodges (R, SD-3)
  • Chuck Payne (R, SD-54)
  • Kay Kirkpatrick (R, SD-32)
  • Carden Summers (R, SD-13)
  • Russ Goodman (R, SD-8)
  • Max Burns (R, SD-23)
  • Rick Williams (R, SD-25)
  • Drew Echols (R, SD-49)
  • Jason T. Dickerson (R, SD-21)
  • Timothy Bearden (R, SD-30)
  • Clint Dixon (R, SD-45)
  • Lee Anderson (R, SD-24)
  • Brian Strickland (R, SD-42)
  • Marty Harbin (R, SD-16)
  • Ed Setzler (R, SD-37)
  • Billy Hickman (R, SD-4)
  • Frank Ginn (R, SD-47)
  • Matt Brass (R, SD-6)
  • Sam Watson (R, SD-11)

Votes

  1. PassedSenate voteFebruary 12, 2026

    31 yea, 21 nay (0 not voting, 2 excused)

    MOTION TO ENGROSS: SB 476, SB 477: Senate Vote #542

  2. PassedSenate voteFebruary 12, 2026

    31 yea, 14 nay (3 not voting, 6 excused)

    PASSAGE: Senate Vote #545

Topics

  • income taxes
  • tax rate cuts
  • standard deduction
  • corporate taxes
  • Georgia state budget

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Machine-readable https://georgiacommons.org/bills/2025-2026/sb477.md · https://georgiacommons.org/bills/index.md · MCP https://mcp.georgiacommons.org/mcp