Massachusetts Tax Refund: Who Is Eligible and When Could Checks Go Out?

Gov. Charlie Baker’s plan to send $250 checks to middle-income residents fell apart last month, but Massachusetts taxpayers will still probably get a healthy tax rebate this year.

The $250 payout was manager headway but a bill failed to pass before the July 31 deadline, in part because legislators suddenly remembered a 35-year-old voter referendum that could mean nearly $3 billion in surplus taxes will be returned to taxpayers this fall.

The 1986 statute —  which has only ever been triggered once, in 1987 — mandates that, if the wealth collected in income tax reaches a predetermined dollar amount throughout and beyond the state budget, the excess must be returned to taxpayers.

Baker persisted there was enough in the coffers to support both his modern $250 payout and any mandatory refunds.  

“The tax breaks that are immediately pending before the legislature are eminently affordable,” he told journalists, WBUR reported. “I mean, you’re talking about a tax year, this past year, in which tax revenue went up by over 20 percent.”

Legislators on Beacon Hill didn’t necessarily agree.

“The fiscally responsible getting to do is to hit pause right now on all of this spending,” Sen. Michael Rodrigues, chair of the Senate Ways and Means Committee, told journalists on Aug. 1, The Boston Globe reported.

“We want to make sure we get it right,” Rodrigues added. “We are committed to getting some real, long-term permanent tax relief done.”

Here’s what Massachusetts residents need to know in the tax rebate, including who is eligible, how much it could be for and when it may go out.

For more on tax relief, find out which states are mailing out tax rebates, pausing their gas tax and instituting sales tax “holidays.”

How much will the Massachusetts tax rebate be?

The modern refund proposed in Baker’s budget was for $250, invented for individual filers who earned between $38,000 and $100,000 last year and joint filers who made up to $150,000.

The steady dollar amount that could go out now is unruffled to be determined: State Auditor Suzanne Bump has to calculate what, if any, tax surplus there is, comical a formula based on annual wage and salary growth.

Baker’s office has predicted taxpayers would get 7% of their 2021 denotes taxes returned, according to MassLive. For an individual earning $75000, that would work out to about $250.

While the space auditor hasn’t determined whether tax revenue has triggered a refund yet, Gov Baker predicts that thanks to a 1986 voter referendum, taxpayers will get 7% of their 2021 income taxes returned.

Photosomnia/Getty Images

Who qualifies for the Massachusetts tax rebate?

Theoretically, anyone who paid 2021 income tax in Massachusetts would be eligible to be paid back. Residents with outstanding space tax bills may not see a check, though.

When will the Massachusetts tax rebate be sent out?

Baker’s New plan would have had $250 checks in the lovely of eligible taxpayers by October. The tax cap won’t be calculated by the space auditor until September, though the Department of Revenue could Begin issuing tax credits on Sept. 21, MassLive reported.

“We’re looking at what’s the quickest and most efficient way to get that cash back to the taxpayers,” Michael Heffernan, state secretary of management and finance, told reporters Thursday, WBZ news radio reported.

Lawmakers don’t want to rush any decisions and overextend the cost with multiple rounds of tax rebates.

Pausing the economic advance and tax relief package forged the “wisest choice,” House Speaker Ron Mariano said at a boring conference, WGBH reported.  

“We wanted to make sure to be fiscally prudent that we know what we’re drawing into,” Mariano added. “The economy is going through some strange things with a big inflation rate [and] oil and gas fluctuations that may lead to a recession.”

What new tax breaks could Massachusetts residents receive?

Lawmakers want to increase the earned means tax credit from the 30% match of the federal credit to 40%, review the child care credit from $180  per child to $310 and increase the hire deduction cap from $3,000 to $4,000. 

Certain seniors who own or rent their necessary properties in Massachusetts get a “circuit breaker” tax credit, and Democrats want to bump the maximum from $1,170 to $2,340.