Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass., speaks during a news conference regarding the pending passage of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act at the Capitol Building in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday, June 3, 2025. Photo by Rod Lamkey Jr. | Associated Press
We’ll see how it all shakes out.
But as things stand now, some of the wealthiest homeowners in the most expensive Boston suburbs are in line for a big fat tax break.
It’s courtesy of the man they love to hate, President Donald Trump.
Towns like Wellesley, Needham, Newton and Sudbury voted for Harris over Trump in last year’s presidential election by huge margins – of 75 percent and up.
But some of the most deep-pocketed voters in these deep blue towns now stand to clean up on their federal taxes, potentially saving thousands of dollars thanks to Trump’s so-called Big Beautiful Bill.
In passing Trump’s tax bill, both the Republican-controlled House and Senate raised the cap on the deduction for state and local taxes to $40,000, up from $10,000 now.
Massachusetts has the fifth-highest percentage of homeowners in the country who would benefit from the change, weighing in at more than 18 percent, Axios reports.
We are just a shade behind California and Connecticut, though New Jersey and New York are in a league of their own, at nearly 40 percent and 26 percent, respectively.
You would have to think that elected officials in many of these burbs likely won’t be railing about this particular provision in Trump’s multitrillion-dollar budget bill, either.
That’s because raising the cap on deduction for state and local taxes takes some of the pressure off them as well. Homeowners are less likely to balk, say, at override votes for new schools or teacher raises knowing they will get some of that moolah back on their federal taxes.
Little Media Attention
Coverage of this issue in the local mainstream media – and the potential tax bonanza for those with the most expensive suburban spreads – has been slim to none.
A Google News searched turned up a Jon Keller piece, but that’s about it.
As Trump’s bill move closer to final passage Tuesday night, the Globe finally chimed in with a somewhat perfunctory piece, “These Mass. ZIP codes would benefit most from key GOP tax bill provision.”
Yawn.
Our all-Democratic congressional delegation has been busy blasting other parts of the Trump bill, such as the massive Medicaid cuts, but have been curiously silent on this particular facet of the legislation.
Yes, there has been a lot of rote indignation about tax cuts for “the rich” at the expense of the nation’s working class.
But let’s get real here, for it’s not just multimillionaires and billionaires who will be benefiting from a much higher federal deduction for state and local taxes.
Scott Van Voorhis
In 2022, just 0.8 percent of Massachusetts taxpayers earned $1 million or more.
That’s compared to the more than 18 percent of homeowners in the state who potentially stand to gain from raising the so-called SALT cap – short for state and local taxes.
It would be more accurately called, then, a tax cut for highly educated, upper-middle-class professionals like doctors, lawyers, bankers and so forth.
And I suspect you won’t find many elected Democrats, either here in Massachusetts or anywhere in the country, railing about that given these are also now some of the party’s staunchest supporters.
Scott Van Voorhis is Banker & Tradesman’s columnist and publisher of the Contrarian Boston newsletter; opinions expressed are his own. He may be reached at sbvanvoorhis@hotmail.com.
