Taxes
Recent
How Will We Spend Fair Share Dollars? Competing Proposals Highlight Needs and Opportunities
Fiscal Year 2024, which starts in July 2023, is the first state budget to include Fair Share dollars, and the Governor’s, House, and Senate budget proposals differ in how they would spend Fair Share funds. How do their priorities compare?
Estate Tax Cuts Worsen Our Large Racial Wealth Gap
If lawmakers cut the Massachusetts estate tax, it is a small number of high-income, white households that will receive the overwhelming share of the benefits. These cuts would worsen the problem of wealth inequality and undermine our ability to address the problem.
Estate Tax Cut Proposals Are Costly and Poorly Targeted – Alternative Solutions Exist
Current estate tax proposals would lead loss of state revenue would reduce the Commonwealth’s ability to make crucial investments, while having regressive impacts on racial and economic equity. The state should seek alternatives.
ALL TAXES REPORTS
Statement Against Decoupling from IRC Provisions Governing Business Interest Expense Deductibility (163(j)) and the Taxation of GILTI
In 2017, the federal government adopted the Tax Cuts and Job Act (TCJA), giving very large tax cuts to corporations. Nationwide, businesses had their annual …
Corporate Tax Series Part 4: Rising Profits, Falling Tax Shares
This latest report analyzes how amid a decades-long decline in corporate income tax share businesses avoid $1.4B in 2019 tax, and explores policy solutions that could help restore the balance. Interested in the finding the full corporate tax series? Read our other reports on how business taxes compare to other states, on the Massachusetts corporate minimum tax, and the Single Sales Factor.
Credit Where Credit is Due: The EITC and CTC – two proven tools to keep low-paid workers out of poverty
One of the most successful ways to lift people out of poverty is through tax credits targeted to low- and moderate-income families. Families use these credits to reduce their income taxes or receive a refund check. The Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) and Child Tax Credit (CTC) are two widely successful tax credit programs for improving family economic security and well-being — combined, the credits lift more people out of poverty than any other federal program except Social Security. Nonetheless, there are opportunities to make these programs even better.
The Pros and Cons of Higher Gas Taxes, and How They Could be Offset for Lower-Income Families
As the Commonwealth seeks to improve our aging transportation system, policy makers have considered raising the gas tax. This paper assesses the gas tax along several well-established criteria for evaluating taxes: efficiency, fairness, and reliability. Based on these criteria, the gas tax receives mixed grades. Offsetting the tax with low-income tax credits could help.
Infographic: Celebrating Latinx Heritage Month
In honor of National Hispanic Heritage Month, also known as #LatinxHeritageMonth (running Sept. 15-Oct. 15), our infographics analyze the number of eligible Hispanic tax filers per county that could or already benefitting from the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC).
Infographics: Labor Day on EITC and CITC
Infographics showing who would benefit from the expansion of the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) and Child Tax Credit (CTC) here in Massachusetts.
Why Highest Incomes in Massachusetts Receive Most Tax Benefits from Charitable Deduction
Even considering how higher-income households have more money to give away, the tax benefits of charitable tax deductions are heavily skewed toward the top.
14 Options for Raising Progressive Revenue
How to collect enough revenue to pay for the things we accomplish together as a Commonwealth and how to collect that revenue fairly are questions that every community and every state need to examine. This paper describes 14 ways the Commonwealth could generate substantial new revenue in a manner that makes our tax system more progressive and would not require changing the state constitution.
