SC paper focuses on elderly and taxes

The Anderson Independent-Mail's Nick Charalambous says current tax policy in South Carolina for elderly residents should be renamed "No Retiree Left Behind" because it gives tax breaks to all seniors regardless of means.

In a July 28 column, he said it is time to rethink senior tax preferences:

According to Georgia State University research, there is an 80 percent difference South Carolina has an 80 percent differential between the effective income tax rates for elderly and non-elderly adults in South Carolina, which is the highest in the nation.

That might have been justified when the elder poverty rate was 24 percent in 1970, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. But now the older-than-65 population’s poverty rate is lower than most other adults, at about 10.2 percent.

Rethinking the idea of tax relief based on age alone is one of the top-10 ideas suggested by the Charleston-based Center for a Better South to make the tax system fairer.