CommonWealth Magazine covers Massachusetts Governor Maura Healey’s remarks to a Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce gathering:
Healey talked up her proposed tax breaks for parents, renters, and seniors, but emphasized her proposals to treat all capital gains the same (right now short-term gains are taxed at 12 percent and all other gains at 5 percent) and to increase the threshold on the estate tax from $1 million to $3 million.
Business groups like the capital gains and estate tax proposals, and Healey didn’t rule out other similar tax breaks emerging as the package moves through the Legislature.
“That’s part of an ongoing discussion to attract businesses to Massachusetts and keep businesses in Massachusetts,” she said.
And comments she made later that day on Boston Public Radio:
Only when radio host Jim Braude asked about tax breaks benefitting the wealthy did she get into a discussion about the estate and capital gains tax breaks. She noted Massachusetts is one of only three states that tax short-term capital gains differently and one of 12 states with an estate tax. She said Massachusetts and Oregon have the lowest estate tax threshold in the nation at $1 million.
“All I’m looking to do is make us not an outlier, to make us more consistent with the rest of the country,” she said.
She also sought to portray her estate tax proposal as a change that will benefit middle-income families. Pointing out that many families have seen the value of their homes appreciate dramatically over the years, she said the higher threshold should save their estates a lot of money when the tax is triggered.
This post is a part of Old Colony Law’s Estate Tax Updates.