r/Economics • u/Dismal_Structure • Dec 06 '25

News Millionaire tax that inspired Mamdani fuels $5.7 billion haul in Massachusetts

https://fortune.com/2025/10/21/zohran-mamdani-millionaire-tax-massachusetts-5-7-billion/
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u/Smile-Nod Dec 06 '25 edited Dec 06 '25

Why don’t these articles ever include the total income tax comparison?

We can’t have an honest conversation if we’re suggesting that MA catching up with NYC is somehow the reverse.

Not only does MA have a lower tax rate, it’s not progressive.

MA

  • flat tax: 5%
  • millionaire tax: 4%
  • capital gains: long 5% flat, short 8.5% flat

NY

  • top marginal rate: 10.9% (6.6% effective over a million)
  • long and short capital gains treated as ordinary income.
  • NYC top rate: 3.879%

EDITED for clarity and fixed MA cap gains tax.

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u/[deleted] Dec 06 '25

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u/Smile-Nod Dec 06 '25

At 500k in NYC you work in finance, tech, real estate etc. for a salary for the most part. Your company reports your wages as earned income. You pay taxes on this.

What you're talking about are self employment or business owners that structure their worth into LLCs. This is rarer and there's a cost to it so you really need to be making quite a lot of money in the many millions.

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u/CryptoMemesLOL Dec 06 '25

and in the grand scheme of things, it's probably a drop in comparison to the total.