Continuing her tax reform victory lap, Gov. Maura Healey spoke to State Street executives Wednesday flanked by signs that read, “Saving Businesses Money.” But Massachusetts recently slid 12 places on an influential ranking of tax competitiveness.
Some of the powerful players in Massachusetts’ business community are getting impatient for long-promised, and long-delayed, tax relief as August stretches on without action.
Top House Democrats plan to unveil and debate a “comprehensive” tax relief package in the next few weeks designed to make Massachusetts more affordable for its residents and “more competitive with other states,” according to Speaker Ronald Mariano, who pledged Thursday to deliver relief to people across the income spectrum.
Attempting to restart a debate that skidded out last summer, the Healey administration on Monday rolled out an $859 million tax relief proposal that would offer new breaks to hundreds of thousands of Bay Staters while reforming the estate tax and the levy on short-term capital gains.
Quintupling the estate tax threshold and slashing the capital gains tax rate led the tax reform ideas embraced Wednesday by one of the region’s leading business groups. But House Speaker Ron Mariano remained noncommittal about any tax cuts, citing changing economic conditions.
Gov. Maura Healey has until March 1 to file her first annual budget, and told reporters Monday that “the budget season is upon us.”
Gov. Charlie Baker is glad that his successor, Democrat Maura Healey, has signaled she plans to continue lobbying for some of the tax reforms that the Republican proposed, but he said in an interview that aired Sunday he never expected all of his ideas would become law.
Democratic leaders of the House and Senate have agreed to a broad framework for up to $500 million in additional tax relief that would see credits for low-income earners, parents, renters and seniors expanded, and the “archaic elements” of the state’s estate tax reformed.
Eileen McAnneny, the first woman to lead the influential Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation and a public policy “powerhouse,” plans to retire at the end of this year.
A new report from the New York Federal Reserve sheds a little light on a question that’s been hanging over the American real estate market: Has the massive tax overhaul adopted by Congress in late 2017 had any effect on whether consumers want to buy or sell homes?
After alluding to tax and economic development reform in an address to her colleagues last week, state Senate President Karen Spilka sketched out a few more details of her approach to taxation over the weekend.
When lawmakers reduced the corporate tax rate at the end of last year, it was supposed to open the flood gates for what had already been an extremely healthy economic climate. While tax reform is expected to yield long-term benefits, it has yet to translate into the increased loan demand
U.S. companies with more cash on their balance sheets thanks to tax reform are coming under greater scrutiny from activist investors, a top Goldman Sachs Group Inc. investment banker said this week.
When lawmakers approved changes to the nation’s tax laws late last year, many banks moved quickly to invest in their workforce, offering bonuses and increasing the minimum wage.
Leominster-based Fidelity Bank is increasing its minimum wage and doling out bonuses of $500 to all staff below the vice president level as a result of tax reform, which reduced the corporate tax rate from 35 percent to 21 percent.
After the sale of its ownership stake in Anchor Capital Advisors and a one-time write down that most banks are taking due to tax reform, Boston Private Financial Holdings reported a net loss of $18.3 million in the fourth quarter of 2017, following three straight quarters of double-digit net income.
The holding company of Berkshire Bank is expecting to take a write-down of $21 million in the fourth quarter of 2017 due to a recalculation of its deferred tax assets triggered by the new tax law, the company said in a statement.
Last week it was mortgage lenders deservedly fretting about the future of their industry; this week it’s HELOC and home equity loan originators.
Berkshire Bank is the latest bank in Massachusetts to announce bonuses, increased charitable contributions and a higher minimum wage following the recent passage of federal tax reform legislation.
East Boston Savings Bank has been one of the fastest-growing banks in Massachusetts, and with new savings from tax reform, it continues full steam ahead.
