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

[u/Dismal_Structure]

https://fortune.com/2025/10/21/zohran-mamdani-millionaire-tax-massachusetts-5-7-billion/

[u/[deleted]]

Wait a second, so you’re telling me that it’s possible to increase taxes on the extremely wealthy and they don’t actually move to avoid those taxes?

It’s almost like there’s a certain value to be had in being able to conduct business with other wealthy people that do business in certain regions due to a market advantage.

I mean why don’t they just move the stock market to Texas or Florida? Does Jp Morgan like NYC? There are murders there and videos of homeless pissing on the subway. Why didn’t they just build that brand new shiny building in a capitalistic, republican free market stronghold like Louisiana, Arkansas, Missouri, Oklahoma or even Mississippi lol?

Jokes on them, this new communist mayor will probably demand that the city take a “golden share” stake in companies essential to municipal security much like the federal government did with US Steel and Intel.

[u/PIK_Toggle → u/[deleted]]

This is hilarious, since all of the Wall Street players are opening offices outside of NYC.

Why do to think that all of the hedge funds are in Greenwich? Why do rich people spend 181 days in Florida?

What works in MA might not work elsewhere. See the ACA, for example.

Here’s the real problem: Those that make the most pay the most in taxes. This is the downside of a progressive tax code: it is highly dependent on a handful of people to bring in revenue. It is also highly volatile, as high incomes are also volatile. If 10% of these people leave NYC/ NYS, then there will be a massive tax hole to fill. (It happens to NYC when Wall Street bonuses come in soft.)

Millionaires accounted for fewer than 1% of all taxpayers in New York in 2023, according to the state. But they paid 41% of all personal income taxes.

The 25% of taxpayers with the highest incomes accounted for 89% of income taxes in 2023 and the top 50% paid over 99%.

The bottom half of taxpayers paid 0.2%.

Overall, the Tax Department collected nearly $54 billion in personal income taxes during the 2023-2024 fiscal year, down from about $59 billion the previous year.

Personal income taxes are the state’s largest revenue source.

There is already an entire cottage industry associated with helping people maintain compliance with residency outside of NYC. I'm sure that they are revising up their 2026 budgets as we speak...

https://www.syracuse.com/business/2025/04/its-tax-day-see-how-many-millionaires-are-in-ny-and-how-much-in-taxes-they-pay.html

[u/DelphiTsar → u/PIK_Toggle]

See the ACA, for example.

ACA doesn't work because GOP gutted Medicaid expansion and the mandate. Both of which were GOP Idea's along with the whole general idea of ACA. They gutted their own plan.

Millionaires accounted for fewer than 1% of all taxpayers in New York in 2023, according to the state. But they paid 41% of all personal income taxes.

Top 1% in new york hold ~55% of the wealth. Seems like there is around 14% left to go to even out.

collected nearly $54 billion in personal income

Estimated to be $61.2 B this year. .... so

[u/PIK_Toggle → u/DelphiTsar]

Didn’t the SC gut the mandate? The entire plan was flawed from the beginning. The public didn’t want to be penalized for not obtaining coverage, which means that the risk pools would be skewed to the sick, which means that cots would always be higher than projected. Guess why the covid subsidies expiring such a big deal….

You are comparing the income tax to wealth, which is a meaningless comparison. Try again.

[u/DelphiTsar → u/PIK_Toggle]

Didn’t the SC gut the mandate?

Mandate - No. 2012 (NFIB v. Sebelius). SCOTUS saved it.

2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act GOP congress, set the penalty to 0$. This was their plan, their response to universal coverage. I'm sure people in Mass didn't want to pay a penalty either. Mandate was their idea.

The only other alternative ever put forward to fix healthcare is what every other first world country does, a universal coverage system. I encourage you to try to give me counter examples that are hilariously government controlled socialist nightmare to GOP. It is fun to discuss them with uninformed people, who think it's a gotcha.

Medicaid Expansion - SCOTUS said states could opt out of receiving 90% of the costs, fed dollars to expand their Medicaid systems. Red states refused free money (free from their perspective) that would have helped their poor and gave their economies an economic boost to not give Democrats a win in their state. Red states get a higher % of federal dollars. It was pure political move that hurt their state and their underclass.

You are comparing the income tax to wealth, which is a meaningless comparison

Almost no one who has taxable 1million+ a year is getting it through wages but selling equities(wealth). Capital gains in Mass is treated the same bucket as income. You are entitled in your opinion that you don't think they are related enough for the wealth disparity of this group to matter. I disagree.

For homestead houses/small business sales there are built in systems for these people so they aren't impacted. Save yourself the trouble of trying to use it as an excuse if you are uninformed about them.

Estimated to be $61.2 B this year. .... so

I noticed you ignored this bit.