Columbus, OH – On Friday, The Buckeye Institute filed an amicus brief in the U.S. Supreme Court in New Hampshire v. Massachusetts calling on the court to protect Granite Staters from unconstitutional taxation by its neighbor—Massachusetts. 

“The Due Process Clause in the U.S. Constitution is clear and requires a government to have some jurisdiction over the person or the thing that it seeks to tax,” said Jay R. Carson, senior litigator with The Buckeye Institute’s Legal Center. “Despite this clarity, Massachusetts has reached across its border to tax people who are not residents and who are not performing any work in Massachusetts. Ironically, this is exactly the type of taxation without representation that drove the Bay State’s forefathers to dump tea into Boston Harbor.”

On October 16, 2020, Massachusetts issued a rule stating that employees whose usual place of business was in Massachusetts but who are now working remotely would still have Massachusetts income tax deducted from their paychecks. New Hampshire objected on behalf of its citizens who are employed by Massachusetts-based companies but are now working exclusively in the Granite State. 

This unconstitutional taxation is one that The Buckeye Institute has challenged in Buckeye v. Kilgore, where an Ohio state law—House Bill 197—allowed municipalities to tax income from workers who do not live in, and were prohibited from working within, the city’s jurisdiction during Ohio’s stay-at-home order.

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UPDATE: June 28, 2021, the U.S. Supreme Court will not hear the case stating, “The motions for leave to file the bills of complaint are denied. Justice Thomas and Justice Alito would grant the motions.”