The Supreme Court denied review of a New Hampshire lawsuit against a Massachusetts rule that allowed for the taxation of New Hampshire residents who worked in Massachusetts remotely and in New Hampshire. The judicial decision was passed on June 28, 2021, which stated how much income New Hampshire residents could deduct from their income taxes for working in Massachusetts.
Former Attorney General of New Hampshire, Gordon MacDonald, filed a lawsuit in 2020 asked the Supreme Court to rule that the Massachusetts rule was a violation of state sovereign rights because it required New Hampshire residents to pay a tax for not being able to work in Massachusetts due to the pandemic. Massachusetts answered that the temporary rule was a reaction to the pandemic and that the rule was not an imposition on New Hampshire’s tax laws. The Court did not give any reason for their decision to deny review. As of December 31, 2020, the tax rule is no longer in effect.
The temporary tax provision that ended in mid-September raises a broader issue about state taxation of remote workers, which is an increasingly common issue due to the pandemic. It is possible that the Court decided not to hear this case because the rule was set to end in September. Nevertheless, whether the Court should have taken the date into consideration is questionable because of how many people’s incomes were affected in the meantime.
https://www.supremecourt.gov/orders/courtorders/062821zor_6j37.pdfhttps://www.supremecourt.gov/DocketPDF/22/22O154/158044/20201019090315372_NH%20v.%20MA%20Orig%20Action.pdf
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