Pioneer Institute Applauds Healey Administration’s Proposal to Reduce LLC Filing Fees; More Reforms Needed to Address Economic Malaise
Pioneer Institute applauds the Healey Administration’s proposal to reduce the LLC filing fee from $500 to $100 and discount annual LLC fees during the early years of a new business. These changes remove two unnecessary barriers facing entrepreneurs and small business owners looking to launch and grow in Massachusetts.
We believe that it is crucial that state leaders build on these proposals to address the Commonwealth’s economic malaise, which started with the pandemic. Since 2020, the state has suffered a net loss of 182,000 domestic residents, equivalent to losing one and a half Cambridges. The Commonwealth is one of only six states to lose private sector jobs, and after years of ranking near the top nationally in net business formation growth, Massachusetts now ranks last in the nation. That decline is being felt in every corner of the state — from Pittsfield to Provincetown — and it demands ambitious reforms to restore competitiveness, investment, and opportunity.
Pioneer’s Agenda for Leadership outlines comprehensive reforms that would help reverse barriers to starting a business in Massachusetts, including reducing the “sting tax” on pass-through businesses, replacing the throwback rule with a throw-out rule for apportionment, eliminating the minimum corporate excise tax, aligning the estate tax with federal thresholds, exempting rolling stock from the use tax, and repealing the asset-based corporate excise tax. Together with the proposed ballot initiative to reduce the personal income tax by 1 percent over three years, these reforms would help restore Massachusetts to its rightful place as a national economic leader and a place where businesses can start, expand, and create jobs.
