State leaders say the changes will simplify returns, create jobs and keep more money in people’s wallets, and the most substantive changes took effect Jan. 1.

The law eliminates a three-tiered income tax system and incorporates a flat 5.8 percent for personal income tax.

Meanwhile the earned-income tax credit expired. Another big change is the increased state sales tax, with counties tacking on their own percentage.

In Wake County, for instance, the sales tax is 6.75 percent and full sales tax must be applied to tickets. Prior to this year, tickets included a 3 percent entertainment tax, according to Dave Olsen, GM of Raleigh’s PNC Arena.

That tax has transformed to the 6.75 percent tax.

“Different facilities are taking different tactics,” Olsen told Pollstar. “For us, it will be all-inclusive. If a promoter wanted to have a $100 ticket, the actual audit price would be $93.25. We’re going to back it in while others have taken the position to add it straight on top so your ticket would be $106.75. That’s venue-by-venue.”

Tickets put on sale before Jan. 1 are grandfathered to the end of the year, so there was a “mad dash” to put tickets on sale before New Year’s Eve, Olsen said.

“We have a coalition here in the state that lobbies against things like this, and the coalition had been successful the last three or four years to keep the law off the books,” Olsen said. “This time it went full steam ahead and became law. That train left the station.”