Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP)

Massachusetts

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State Child Tax Credits Boosted Financial Security for Families and Children in 2025

• By Neva Butkus

Child Tax Credits (CTCs) are effective tools to bolster the economic security of low- and middle-income families and position the next generation for success.

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Trump’s Tax Law Clobbers State Budgets. Now’s the Time to Prepare.

• By ITEP Staff

The Trump megabill hands the richest 1% a trillion-dollar windfall while gutting funding for health care, education, and disaster relief — leaving communities to pick up the pieces. State and local leaders must step up, tax the wealthiest fairly, and safeguard the essentials that keep America healthy, educated, and safe.

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Sales Tax Holidays Miss the Mark When it Comes to Effective Sales Tax Reform

• By Miles Trinidad

Sales tax holidays are often marketed as relief for everyday families, but they do little to address the deeper inequities of regressive sales taxes. In 2025, 18 states offer these holidays at a collective cost of $1.3 billion.

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Anti-Tax Revolts Backfire: What We’ve Learned from 50 Years of Property Tax Limits

• By Rita Jefferson

Across-the-board property tax cuts create less fair local tax systems in the long run. State legislators and local governments should prioritize the residents who can least afford their property taxes, not the residents and businesses who can.

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How Much Would Every Family in Every State Get if the Megabill’s Tax Cuts Given to the Rich Had Instead Been Evenly Divided?

• By Michael Ettlinger

If instead of giving $117 billion to the richest 1 percent, that money had been evenly divided among all Americans, we'd each get $343 - or nearly $1,400 for a family of four.

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Analysis of Tax Provisions in the Trump Megabill as Signed into Law: National and State Level Estimates

• By Steve Wamhoff, Carl Davis, Joe Hughes, Jessica Vela

President Trump has signed into law the tax and spending “megabill” that largely favors the richest taxpayers and provides working-class Americans with relatively small tax cuts that will in many cases be more than offset by Trump's tariffs.

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Trump Megabill Will Give $117 Billion in Tax Cuts to the Top 1% in 2026. How Much In Your State?

• By Michael Ettlinger

The predominant feature of the tax and spending bill working its way through Congress is a massive tax cut for the richest 1 percent — a $114 billion benefit to the wealthiest people in the country in 2026 alone.

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How Much Do the Top 1% in Each State Get from the Trump Megabill?

• By Carl Davis

The Senate tax bill under debate right now would bring very large tax cuts to very high-income people. In total, the richest 1 percent would receive $114 billion in tax cuts next year alone. That would amount to nearly $61,000 for each of these affluent households.

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Analysis of Tax Provisions in the House Reconciliation Bill: National and State Level Estimates

• By Carl Davis, Jessica Vela, Joe Hughes, Steve Wamhoff

The poorest fifth of Americans would receive 1 percent of the House reconciliation bill's net tax cuts in 2026 while the richest fifth of Americans would receive two-thirds of the tax cuts. The richest 5 percent alone would receive a little less than half of the net tax cuts that year.

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State Rundown 5/15: State Tax Debates Carry On in the Midst of Chaotic Federal Tax Landscape

• By ITEP Staff

Even as most major headlines have been about the ever-changing landscape of federal tax policy, the latest “ideas of the week," and now the House tax bill, state tax policy continues to be a priority for lawmakers.

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Trump 2025 Tax Law: Research and Resources

• By ITEP Staff

Want to know more about the tax and spending megabill that President Trump recently signed into law? We've got you covered.

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Trump Administration’s Decision to End Direct File is Another Gift to Big Corporations

• By ITEP Staff

Contact: Jon Whiten (jon@itep.org) According to multiple reports, the Trump administration plans to eliminate the IRS Direct File program, a free electronic system for filing tax returns directly to the agency. Statement from ITEP Executive Director Amy Hanauer “The tax preparation industry has for years lobbied to prevent the IRS from providing a tool to […]

NBC News: IRS Agreement with ICE to Share Immigrants’ Info Could Lead to Billions Less in Tax Revenue

April 15, 2025

Like millions of American citizens and immigrants, Ivan filed his taxes last year. But Ivan, 54, a Massachusetts resident who hails from Colombia, is worried a recent agreement between the IRS and Immigration and Customs Enforcement means he is in danger of being deported for doing what he believed was the right thing.

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IRS Cooperation with ICE Will Damage Public Trust, Putting Tax Revenues in Jeopardy

• By Marco Guzman

Attempts by the Department of Homeland Security to secure private information from the IRS on people who file taxes with an Individual Taxpayer Identification Number is a violation of federal privacy laws that protect taxpayers. It is also a change that could seriously damage public trust in the IRS, which could jeopardize billions of dollars in tax payments by hardworking immigrant families.

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State Rundown 3/20: It’s March, Welcome to Tax Policy Madness

• By ITEP Staff

March Madness kicks off today and the pressure is on as many states’ legislative sessions are nearing the final buzzer. Some state lawmakers are seemingly competing for the title of most regressive state tax policies while others are looking to lift up best practices for more equitable outcomes.   The Mississippi legislature landed on a […]

Massachusetts Budget & Policy Center: By Taxing GILTI Profits, Massachusetts Can Reclaim Millions in Revenue Lost to Corporate Offshore Tax Dodging

• By ITEP Staff

Massachusetts loses out on hundreds of millions of tax dollars each year due to “profit-shifting”, a practice common among large, multinational corporations. International profit-shifting involves complex accounting maneuvers that make a corporation’s U.S. profits appear instead on the books of related companies located in offshore tax havens. It is an abusive form of tax avoidance that many multinational corporations use to lower their federal and state tax payments.

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Housing Affordability and Property Taxes: How to Actually Move the Needle

• By Kamolika Das, Rita Jefferson

Tax policy alone cannot solve the housing crisis but lawmakers who are focused on tax policy solutions have better options available than sweeping property tax cuts and caps: property tax circuit breakers, renter credits, vacancy taxes, land value taxes, and changes to existing property tax assessments can move the needle on the affordable housing crisis.

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New Analysis: Congress Considering Creating an Unprecedented Tax Shelter to Steer Billions to Private K-12 School Vouchers and Wealthy Individuals

• By ITEP Staff

Contact: Jon Whiten (jon@itep.org) A bill introduced in Congress would create an unprecedented 100% tax credit for donations to nonprofits that give out private K-12 school vouchers and create a lucrative tax shelter that would further enrich some of America’s wealthiest individuals. If passed, the Educational Choice for Children Act of 2025 (ECCA) would cost […]

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A Revenue Impact Analysis of the Educational Choice for Children Act of 2025

• By Carl Davis

The Educational Choice for Children Act of 2025 would provide donors to nonprofit groups that distribute private K-12 school vouchers with a dollar-for-dollar federal tax credit in exchange for their contributions. In total, the ECCA would reduce federal and state tax revenues by $10.6 billion in 2026 and by $136.3 billion over the next 10 years. Federal tax revenues would decline by $134 billion over 10 years while state revenues would decline by $2.3 billion.

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Learn from Prop 13 History to Avoid Repeating Past Mistakes

• By Rita Jefferson

Worries about housing costs and property tax bills are leading people to check the history books for solutions, but there’s a danger that they’ll repeat past mistakes. If anti-tax lawmakers carelessly weaken property taxes as they did in the 1970s, as they did with California’s Proposition 13, they will undercut public finances, making municipalities, school districts, and other special districts worse off.

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Wide-Ranging 2025 State Tax Debates Come into Focus

• By Aidan Davis

In the face of immense uncertainty around looming federal tax and budget decisions, many of which could threaten state budgets, state lawmakers have an opportunity to show up for their constituents by raising and protecting the revenue needed to fund shared priorities. Lawmakers have a choice: advance tax policies that improve equity and help communities thrive, or push tax policies that disproportionately benefit the wealthy, drain funding for critical public services, and make it harder…

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A Revenue Analysis of Worldwide Combined Reporting in the States

• By Carl Davis, Matthew Gardner, Michael Mazerov

Universal adoption of mandatory worldwide combined reporting would boost state corporate income tax revenues by roughly 14 percent. Thirty-eight states and the District of Columbia would experience revenue increases totaling $19.1 billion.

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Turning IRS Agents to Deportation Will Reduce Public Revenues

• By Carl Davis, Jon Whiten

The Trump Administration’s plan to turn IRS agents into deportation agents will result in lower tax collections in addition to the harm done to the families and communities directly affected by deportations.

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State Rundown 1/30: The Revenue Decrease is in the Details

• By ITEP Staff

More details on this year’s batch of major tax proposals are emerging from statehouses - and some revenue cuts look like they could be steep. A governor-backed and House-passed plan in Mississippi would phase out the personal income tax, while a recent tax cut proposal out of Idaho is anchored by a $253 million dollar income tax cut.  

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Maryland’s Tax Reform Likely Won’t Cause Millionaire Migration

• By Nick Johnson

The moment Gov. Wes Moore announced his proposal to reform Maryland’s tax system, in part, by raising income tax rates on high-income households, opponents began predicting that wealthy people would respond by leaving. Experience from other states says that’s not the case.