DOR: Fair Share Revenue Up 20% Over First 10 Months of FY26, Already Exceeding $3 Billion
Tax on Million-Dollar Earners Continues to Exceed Revenue Projections, Proving Fears of Millionaire Flight False
BOSTON – The State Department of Revenue yesterday certified that Massachusetts collected more than $3.1 billion in Fair Share revenue from the state’s 4% tax on high-income earners over the first 10 months of the state’s current fiscal year. That’s a 20% increase over the $2.5 billion collected at the same point last year.
In FY25 (July 2024-June 2025), Massachusetts collected a total of $3 billion in Fair Share revenue over the full year. Once additional revenue is collected this May and June, the FY26 (July 2025-June 2026) total is set to be significantly higher and will set a new record for Fair Share collections.
Fair Share revenues have consistently exceeded expectations. In 2022, when the Fair Share Amendment was on the ballot, the state Executive Office for Administration and Finance projected that the tax would generate just $1.2 billion annually. For the third year in a row, actual Fair Share revenue will more than double that initial projection.
The Raise Up Massachusetts coalition of community organizations, faith-based groups, and labor unions, which led the campaign for the 2022 passage of the Fair Share Amendment tax on million-dollar income earners, released the following statement in response:
“Nearly four years after voters passed the Fair Share Amendment, it’s still surpassing expectations. The skeptics who said multi-millionaires would flee for other states rather than pay their fair share are being proved wrong; the ultra-rich are clearly staying in Massachusetts and paying more in taxes, leading to the tax’s massive overperformance relative to initial projections.
“Thanks to this windfall paid for by the richest 1%, we’re allocating billions of dollars to improve our public schools, colleges, roads, bridges, and public transportation. We’re finally fixing the T and rebuilding crumbling bridges across the state. We’re delivering much-needed funding to local public schools and colleges and increasing access to affordable childcare. And Fair Share-funded programs like universal free school meals, free community college, and free buses are making a real difference in the cost of living for Massachusetts families.
“Since we began taxing multi-millionaires to fund transportation and public education, Massachusetts has been ranked the strongest state economy in the US, as well as the second-best state in the U.S. to start, grow and operate a business. Greater Boston was recently named the third-best destination for recent college graduates and early career professionals, and for the last two years, Massachusetts has been ranked the nation’s best state to live in. The evidence is crystal clear: millionaires in Massachusetts are doing just fine.
“For the rest of us, the high cost of living is a real problem. Massachusetts needs to do much more to address the actual drivers of our affordability crisis, like housing, childcare, and healthcare costs that are driving low- and middle-income residents into financial ruin or out of the state. Reckless attempts to slash the state budget and fund tax breaks for the ultra-rich would only threaten our ability to make Massachusetts more affordable.”
Background
In November 2022, Massachusetts voters passed the Fair Share Amendment, choosing a fairer tax system and guaranteeing that the richest one percent will pay more to fund our schools, colleges, roads, bridges, and public transit. The Fair Share Amendment established a 4 percent tax on the portion of a taxpayers’ annual income above $1 million (increased annually for inflation — the threshold in 2026 is $1,107,750), and constitutionally dedicates the funds to be spent on transportation and public education.
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Raise Up Massachusetts is a coalition of more than 100 community organizations, faith-based groups, and labor unions committed to building an economy that invests in families, gives everyone the opportunity to succeed, and creates broadly shared prosperity. Since our coalition came together in 2013, we have nearly doubled wages for hundreds of thousands of working people by winning two increases in the state’s minimum wage, won best-in-the-nation earned sick time and paid family and medical leave benefits for workers and their families, passed the Fair Share Amendment to invest in transportation and public education with a fairer tax system, and started to build an economy that works for all of us, not just those at the top.