SOUTH CAROLINA: A BREAK FOR (EDUCATED) MATRIMONY
Eager to see married couples stay that way, South Carolina’s legislators have encouraged those tying the knot to take a pre-marriage counseling course by offering a tax credit.
A couple who sits through (together, natch) a minimum of six hours with a licensed professional or active member of the clergy (or their designee, if “trained and skilled in premarital preparation”) can take a $50 tax credit when filing jointly once married.
The law was passed in 2006. Keeping up with the times, in 2015, the South Carolina Department of Revenue updated the relevant tax form to change who could claim it from “a man and a woman” to “a couple.”
NEW HAMPSHIRE: TAXING THE DIRT
All states tax property: New Hampshire taxes it if you move it around. Well, if you move an awful lot of it around.
The Granite State is, of course, a rocky place, with plenty of quarries and gravel pits. And so the state has an excavation tax at a rate of $.02 per cubic yard of earth excavated (if more than 1,000 cubic yards are moved). While this is primarily aimed at industrial extraction (most states levy severance taxes on coal, oil and other mineral wealth), New Hampshire specifically notes that the tax is due even if you’re just giving away the dirt. So you can put up a “FREE FILL” sign and hope someone takes it, but you’ll still owe the tax man.