Tax burden in NH vs. MA

[Brave Stranger]

Thanks seamusnh for pointing out the "house equivalent tax issue" beteen MA & NH. People just think because NH has higher property taxes than MA in general that this holds over in all cases, and of course it does not.

[Brave Stranger]

Boy oh boy.......this is a Massachusetts classic: They have been talking about getting rid of the road-tolls in MA & replacing the income with a 50 cent gas tax. Well it looks like they are going to give the MA taxpayers a 29 cent raise in the gas tax & keep the tolls & go up on those also. Lol, the worst of all words. Give them an inch and they take everything, and folks wonder why us NH folks get concerned when people move up here from MA and other places. We don't want this kind of thing here. MA was never going to eliminate a "tax source"......ever. So they found a way to keep them both so that in the future they could raise them at will.

[seamusnh]

It is amazing that the people paying the tolls (those going east/west) are paying for a highway that goes north/south (the big dig). Tolls are an inefficient way to collect money. For every $100,000 in toll money, it costs $30,000 to collect it. Increasing the gas tax costs nothing more to collect. Toll booths are dangerous as well. CT tore down the tolls on 95 after a major accident. Toll booths waste time, waste energy (forcing cars to stop or slow down a lot) and increase pollution (cars give out more pollution when accelerating.

The federal gas tax is 18.4 cents. MA adds 23.5 cents and Nh adds 18 cents. If they raise it to 29 cents there will be more people crossing the border to fill up in NH.

At a 41.9 cents in MA and $1.80 per gallon the sales tax rate on gas is 30%. Imagine if the sales tax rate on other things was 30%!

[JTROSE127]

I have a question about paying state income tax. I live in NH and work 3 days in an office in MA and 2 days from home. 100% of my income is taxed. For those of you who filed for credits, did you need any special documentation from your work? Did it require any changes from your company's payroll?

I was told that I should get a letter from my company stating that I work from home 40% of the time, but when I asked for it, my company refused. If I go ahead and request the credit, will my company be notified? I want the credit, but I don't want to anger management and lose my telecommute days.

Thanks in advance for any advice!

[lisa g]

Originally Posted by Sporin

Talk to an accountant familiar with the area to be sure.

This is exactly what I need to do. Can anyone recommend a aharp CPA in the Nashua area who will not sneeze at servicing a small business? Feel free to DM me and thank you in advance!

[seamusnh]

I keep track of how many days a year I am in the office in MA and how many days I am working, but not in MA (working at home, travelling on business). In the MA non-resident tax forms, there is a section where you calcuate your % in MA (weekends and holidays do not count). It is understandable that an employer does not want to get involved. It costs them money to do this (according to the CFO at my company) and they do not want any hassle from the state of MA.

[GregW]

seamusnh - when I worked in both NH and MA I kept a diary of what and where I was working. I calculated the percentage (OK my wife calculated it) of the time i was not subject to Mass income tax and deducted that from my Mass income tax. I always received a rebate for the amount of time I was out of state. In my case I did not have a letter from my employer and Mass never asked to review my records.
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[JTROSE127]

Thanks for the responses re how to file for the telecommute credit! I really appreciate it