When the Washington State Supreme Court issued its March 24 ruling authorizing collection of the capital gains tax signed into law by Governor Jay Insley (D) two years ago, it made Washington the only jurisdiction on the planet to classify a capital gains tax as an excise tax. The decision also took Washington off the list of no-income-tax states.
Washington State’s departure from the club of no-income-tax states comes a little more than four months after Massachusetts was pulled off the list of flat tax states with Bay State voters’ approval of Question 1. Question 1, which garnered 52% of the vote, is a constitutional amendment that moved Massachusetts this year from a flat 5% state income tax to a progressive income tax with a top rate of 9%. Though these developments in Washington and Massachusetts are big wins for progressives, they’re outliers in the overall trend.
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