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Read MoreThe Massachusetts Legislature has scheduled a vote Wednesday to advance a massive income surtax on thousands of small and medium-sized businesses in the commonwealth.
The tax is ill-considered and threatens to pull the plug on the nascent post-COVID economic recovery in the commonwealth.
Lawmakers meeting in Constitutional Convention are expected to vote on a proposed amendment to the state constitution that would impose an 80 percent surtax on incomes more than $1 million per year. The vote would clear the way for the measure to go before voters in November 2022.
The Legislature voted 147-48 in favor of the proposal in 2019. The House and Senate have to advance the constitutional amendment in consecutive legislative sessions before it can go before voters.
A graduated income tax would take an estimated $2 billion each year from some 17,000 Main Street businesses and other pass-through companies that pay taxes at the individual rate. These companies – including family farms, retail stores and mid-sized manufacturing companies – are already reeling from the effects of the COVID pandemic and the 14-month shutdown of normal business in Massachusetts.
Massachusetts employers provide 3.4 million private-sector jobs at a mean annual wage of $70,010 to the citizens of Massachusetts. Approximately 46 percent of those 3.4 million jobs are in small to medium-sized businesses.
The 3,300 members of AIM respect the will of voters, but look to the Legislature to consider the potential issues surrounding the surtax:
The Massachusetts companies that produced $584 billion worth of goods and services in the midst of a global pandemic last year need the opportunity to get back on their feet – not a punitive tax increase that would leave them down for the count.
Need more information on the surtax proposal? Please contact Brooke Thomson, bthomson@aimnet.org.