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. Massachusetts’s tax system ranks 41st overall on the 2025 State Tax Competitiveness 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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The State Tax Competitiveness Index enables policymakers, taxpayers, and business leaders to gauge how their states’ tax systems compare. While there are many ways to show how much state governments collect in taxes, the Index evaluates how well states structure their tax systems and provides a road map for improvement.
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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.
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Tax burdens rose across the country as pandemic-era economic changes caused taxable income, activities, and property values to rise faster than net national product. Tax burdens in 2020, 2021, and 2022 are all higher than in any other year since 1978.
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Individual income taxes are a major source of state government revenue, accounting for more than a third of state tax collections. How do income taxes compare in your state?
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Graduated corporate rates are inequitable—that is, the size of a corporation bears no necessary relation to the income levels of the owners.
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Retail sales taxes are an essential part of most states’ revenue toolkits, responsible for 32 percent of state tax collections and 13 percent of local tax collections (24 percent of combined collections).
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Individual income taxes are a major source of state government revenue, accounting for more than a third of state tax collections:
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Most of the 2023 state tax changes represent net tax reductions, the result of an unprecedented wave of rate reductions and other tax cuts in the past two years as states respond to burgeoning revenues, greater tax competition in an era of enhanced mobility, and the impact of high inflation on residents.
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