You may be wondering whether Massachusetts has raised its estate tax threshold from $1 million to $2 million as had been passed by both houses of the state legislature, though in different forms. (We discussed this possibility in this post.) The answer is it did not.
The effort to increase the threshold fell victim, along with many other tax and economic development initiatives, fell victim to the legislature’s late-in-the-process discovery that the state may have to reimburse taxpayers as much as $2.5 billion due to an arcane 1986 law and our extraordinary tax receipts this year.
Not anticipating these outflows and not having time to figure things out before its August recess, the legislature passed on any tax changes. It is likely to revisit its plans in the fall, but all bets or off for now.
Massachusetts continues along with Oregon to “enjoy” the lowest state estate tax threshold in the nation.
