Next year, West Virginia residents will pay a smaller share of their paychecks in taxes.

The state officially granted a four percent income tax cut effective Jan. 1, 2025. The tax cut was confirmed Thursday by State Auditor JB McCuskey and Larry Pack, acting secretary of the West Virginia Department of Revenue.

The certification follows an announcement by Gov. Jim Justice in early July that the state expects to cut income taxes. This was attributed to a 2023 law that automatically triggers income tax cuts when state revenues exceed 2019 inflation-adjusted figures.

Justice has repeatedly expressed a desire to eliminate state income taxes altogether, and has described the cuts as a way to support consumers and attract businesses and residents to West Virginia. In 2023, he signed legislation that would cut state income taxes by 21 percent, the largest cut in state history.

Some elected officials and economic analysts have expressed concern that tax cuts could hurt government services such as Medicaid and public education by reducing their access to funding.

Still, Justice, McCuskey and Pack called the latest round of cuts a victory for ordinary West Virginians.

“Although it won’t happen during my term as governor, our state is on track to eliminate its income tax. So let’s keep rolling in that direction,” Justice said in a press release Thursday. “Eliminating the income tax will bring more good and more people to our beautiful state.”