Fiscal watchdogs should not shopping for a current research that discovered Massachusetts has gained scores of millionaires and ultra-wealthy people because the millionaire’s tax went into impact.
The Massachusetts Fiscal Alliance and Mass Alternative Alliance are taking pictures again after the Institute for Coverage Research, a nationwide progressive assume tank, reported that the 4% surtax on incomes over $1 million hasn’t triggered millionaires to depart the state.
As a substitute, the millionaire’s tax has “expanded” the variety of Bay Staters with a internet value of 1,000,000 {dollars} or extra since 2022, with their wealth seeing “tremendous growth,” the Institute for Coverage Research reported in a research revealed earlier this week.
The institute pointed to how Massachusetts noticed a acquire of at the very least 39% in millionaires between 2022 and final yr, from 441,610 individuals to 612,109 individuals. The variety of people with at the very least $50 million in complete wealth additionally grew 35% in the identical timeframe, from 1,954 individuals to 2,642 individuals, in line with the research.
The nationwide common in development of residents reporting $1 million or extra was 49% between 2018 and 2022, with Massachusetts trailing at 36%, in line with a Tax Basis report additionally revealed this week.
Paul Diego Craney, spokesman for MassFiscal, argued that the Institute for Coverage Research is attempting to “spin the fact that incomes and net worth have increased across the country into a case for higher taxes.”
“But the reality is simple: incomes rose everywhere between 2018 and 2022 due to broader national trends like inflation, federal stimulus, and a booming stock market,” Craney stated in an announcement Thursday. “Net worths soared because housing prices soared. A surge in real estate values doesn’t mean Massachusetts tax policy is working.”
The Mass Alternative Alliance additionally supplied a pointy rebuke to the Institute for Coverage Research report. It identified how in January, U-Haul ranked Massachusetts because the state with the second-worst inhabitants development for the second yr in a row, whereas United Van Strains discovered that 53% of residents leaving the state earn $150,000 or extra yearly.
Massachusetts gained 69,603 residents between 2023 and 2024, however 90,217 worldwide migrants helped offset a “loss” of 27,480 home residents, in line with Census estimates.
“Clinging to false narratives only prolongs the bad policies that have raised costs, hiked taxes, and pushed families and businesses to the brink,” stated Christopher Anderson, of the Mass Alternative Alliance.
Cash from the 4% surtax on incomes over $1 million has served as a boon to lawmakers over the previous a number of years because the state skilled less-than-ideal income hauls and federal funding cuts.
Massachusetts expects to gather $2.4 billion in income from the surtax in fiscal yr 2026, or barely greater than the $2.2 billion the voter-approved regulation introduced in fiscal yr 2024, in line with Gov. Maura Healey’s administration.
Andrew Farnitano, spokesman for Elevate Up Massachusetts, a millionaire’s tax advocacy group, slammed surtax opponents, whom he stated argued the cash “wouldn’t generate anywhere near the estimated $2 billion a year” in transportation and public training investments.
“They’ve been proven wrong on all counts,” Farnitano stated in an announcement. “Now, the same lobbyists for the ultra-rich are using cherry-picked anecdotes and data from 2022 — before the Fair Share Amendment took effect — to try to argue that multi-millionaires are fleeing the state in response to the new tax. The evidence proves them wrong.”
