House Bill 2511 would reduce a doctor’s tax liability by up to $25,000 a year, if he or she practices in a rural community beginning in 2020. The House passed the measure by House Speaker Charles McCall earlier this week.
“Oklahoma ranks near the bottom of states for access to primary care in rural areas, and the majority of those primary care physicians we do have in rural Oklahoma are closing in on retirement,” said McCall. “We need a multifaceted approach to improving access to care in our smaller communities, and we have to find ways to incentivize providers to move into and practice in those communities. This would allow those doctors to take that money they saved and invest it in their practices, to pay student loans and to invest in the local community.”
A rural community is defined as a municipality with a population of less than 25,000 and is at least 25 miles away from the nearest city with a population of more than 25,000. To qualify, the doctors must have graduated from a medical or osteopathic school in Oklahoma and reside in the same county as the practice. The exemption can be claimed for up to five years and would end when a total of $1 million was claimed statewide.
