I get it. Massachusetts – or Taxachusetts if you think you’re clever – can be, in many respects, an expensive place to live. It comes as no surprise, then, that our commonwealth is among the most unhappy with its state legislature when it comes to levying taxes. The Bay State was, after all, the birthplace of liberty. Boston Tea Party, anyone?
According to a new Gallup poll, Bay Staters are the seventh most negative about their state’s taxes. Only New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Illinois, Rhode Island and Maryland seem more discontent.
It’s interesting, then, that all of these revolutionary states, with the addition of Illinois, appear so reluctant to relinquish their hard-earned dollars with the IRS tax filing deadline looming less than a week away.
To garner the results, Gallup conducted telephone interviews of a random sampling of 600 adults per state between June 27, 2013 and December 4, 2013. Of those surveyed, 65 percent of Massachusetts residents say state taxes are much too high. In New York and New Jersey, that number bumps up to 77 percent.
“On average, 50% of residents across all states say their taxes are too high,” writes Gallup. It’s not surprising, though. Show me the person who actually enjoys giving money back to Uncle Sam and I’ll show you an appallingly surprised individual.
To find the states less willing to complain about their duties, turn your attention further west. Wyoming, Alaska, South Dakota and Nevada are the least negative about state taxes – 19 percent, 21 percent, 27 percent and 28 percent respectively don’t think of their taxes as too high. Only Florida and Delaware, fifth and sixth least negative, are of the East coast.
Massachusetts has a flat 5.25 percent income tax rate to go along with its 6.25 percent sales tax. The income tax poses problems in that the same tax is levied across different salary ranges. Essentially, an entry-level worker is subjected to the same state income tax rate as a high-powered executive despite the fact that they’ll pay different amounts due to the federal tax bracket.
But what do you think, Massachusetts? Are your taxes too high? Are we complaining just for the sake of doing so?
