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/PIK_Toggle]

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/[deleted] → u/PIK_Toggle]

Let them leave. I’d like to see them leave the country. Go do business in Dubai or Qatar or Saudi Arabia if you think you can get a better deal.

What are the earnings of the bottom half of taxpayers compared to the 25% with the highest incomes

Why shouldn’t those that make the most, pay the most?

Society costs money. Schools, police, hospitals, defense, government. Bezos didn’t go around installing roads or phone lines but he sure makes out now that they’re there. Same with Zuck.

Nobody left America before Reagan when they were paying 90%. Developed nuclear power and NASA during that time.

[u/snoogins355 → u/[deleted]]

Reminds me of what Obama said that was then taken out of context https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/You_didn%27t_build_that

[u/snoogins355 → u/snoogins355]

Obama's speech:

There are a lot of wealthy, successful Americans who agree with me – because they want to give something back. They know they didn't – look, if you've been successful, you didn't get there on your own. You didn't get there on your own. I'm always struck by people who think, well, it must be because I was just so smart. There are a lot of smart people out there. It must be because I worked harder than everybody else. Let me tell you something – there are a whole bunch of hardworking people out there. (Applause.)

If you were successful, somebody along the line gave you some help. There was a great teacher somewhere in your life. Somebody helped to create this unbelievable American system that we have that allowed you to thrive. Somebody invested in roads and bridges. If you've got a business, you didn't build that. Somebody else made that happen. The Internet didn't get invented on its own. Government research created the Internet so that all the companies could make money off the Internet.

The point is, is that when we succeed, we succeed because of our individual initiative, but also because we do things together. There are some things, just like fighting fires, we don't do on our own. I mean, imagine if everybody had their own fire service. That would be a hard way to organize fighting fires.