MASSACHUSETTS TAX REVENUES continued to be remarkably resilient in December, as collections were up 8.8 percent over the same pre-COVID month a year ago and up 2.7 percent in the first six months of the fiscal year.
Total collections in December were $2.8 billion, up $230 million over December 2019. December is typically the fifth largest revenue month of the year, bringing in 9.5 percent of the state’s annual revenues on average.
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Editor, CommonWealth
About Bruce Mohl
Bruce Mohl is the editor of CommonWealth magazine. Bruce came to CommonWealth from the Boston Globe, where he spent nearly 30 years in a wide variety of positions covering business and politics. He covered the Massachusetts State House and served as the Globe’s State House bureau chief in the late 1980s. He also reported for the Globe’s Spotlight Team, winning a Loeb award in 1992 for coverage of conflicts of interest in the state’s pension system. He served as the Globe’s political editor in 1994 and went on to cover consumer issues for the newspaper. At CommonWealth, Bruce helped launch the magazine’s website and has written about a wide range of issues with a special focus on politics, tax policy, energy, and gambling. Bruce is a graduate of Ohio Wesleyan University and the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University. He lives in Dorchester.
About Bruce Mohl
Bruce Mohl is the editor of CommonWealth magazine. Bruce came to CommonWealth from the Boston Globe, where he spent nearly 30 years in a wide variety of positions covering business and politics. He covered the Massachusetts State House and served as the Globe’s State House bureau chief in the late 1980s. He also reported for the Globe’s Spotlight Team, winning a Loeb award in 1992 for coverage of conflicts of interest in the state’s pension system. He served as the Globe’s political editor in 1994 and went on to cover consumer issues for the newspaper. At CommonWealth, Bruce helped launch the magazine’s website and has written about a wide range of issues with a special focus on politics, tax policy, energy, and gambling. Bruce is a graduate of Ohio Wesleyan University and the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University. He lives in Dorchester.
Collections for June through December 2020 were $14.3 billion, up 2.7 percent compared to the same six-month period a year ago when COVID-19 was not ravaging the economy. The $14.3 billion represents just over 50 percent of the $28.4 billion the state is forecasting to take in during fiscal 2021, which ends June 30.
A big part of the December increase was in corporate and business taxes, which totaled $589 million, up $289 million over December 2019. In a statement, Department of Revenue Commissioner Geoffrey Snyder said the corporate and business tax increase reflected “one-time business restructuring events and timing factors such as changes to corporate estimated payment installment patterns.”
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