How does Massachusetts’s tax code compare? Massachusetts has a graduated state individual income tax, with rates ranging from 5.00 percent to 9.00 percent. Massachusetts has an 8 percent corporate income tax rate. Massachusetts also has a 6.25 percent state sales tax rate and does not have local sales taxes. Massachusetts has a 1.04 percent effective property tax rate on owner-occupied housing value.
Massachusetts has an estate tax. Massachusetts has a 27.37 cents per gallon gas tax rate and a $3.51 cigarette excise tax rate. The State of Massachusetts collects $8,110 in state and local tax collections per capita. Massachusetts has $14,534 in state and local debt per capita and has a 69 percent funded ratio of public pension plans. Overall, Massachusetts’s tax system ranks 46th on our 2024 State Business Tax Climate Index.
Each state’s tax code is a multifaceted system with many moving parts, and Massachusetts is no exception. The first step towards understanding Massachusetts’s tax code is knowing the basics. How does Massachusetts collect tax revenue? Click the tabs below to learn more! You can also explore our state tax maps, which are compiled from our annual publication, Facts & Figures 2024: How Does Your State Compare?
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As housing prices are rapidly increasing, and property tax bills along with them, the property tax has come into the spotlight in many states. The design of a state’s property tax system can affect how attractive that state is to businesses and residents.
9 min read
Facts & Figures serves as a one-stop state tax data resource that compares all 50 states on over 40 measures of tax rates, collections, burdens, and more.
2 min read
States can better position themselves for success by moving away from economically-damaging taxes like the capital stock tax.
4 min read
The proposed reforms would be welcome changes to the Commonwealth’s tax code, but the economic principles behind the reforms also have important implications for the Bay State’s income tax system writ large.
6 min read
Individual income taxes are a major source of state government revenue, accounting for more than a third of state tax collections:
9 min read
If your state issued tax rebates last year, you might have to pay federal income tax on the rebate you received. Maybe. Who knows? Unfortunately, not the IRS—at least not yet.
5 min read
While many factors influence business location and investment decisions, sales taxes are something within policymakers’ control that can have immediate impacts.
11 min read
At the end of 2022, prices were 14.6 percent higher than they were two years prior. That’s the fastest inflation rate over any two calendar years since the stagflation era of the late 1970s. State policymakers are understandably interested in bringing any tools at their disposal to bear on the problem. And many of them are reaching for tax policy solutions.
7 min read
New Jersey levies the highest top statutory corporate tax rate at 11.5 percent, followed by Minnesota (9.8 percent) and Illinois (9.50 percent). Alaska and Pennsylvania levy top statutory corporate tax rates of 9.40 percent and 8.99 percent, respectively.
6 min read
The pandemic has accelerated changes to the way we live and work, making it far easier for people to move—and they have. As states work to maintain their competitive advantage, they should pay attention to where people are moving, and try to understand why.
5 min read