Massachusetts tax amnesty: what the 2024 program offered
Massachusetts runs amnesty programs occasionally and briefly. The last one closed on 30 December 2024. Knowing what it offered is useful; planning around the next one is not, because nothing says there will be one, or when.
THE CLOCK — THE 2024 PROGRAM CLOSED ON 30 DECEMBER 2024
The 2024 amnesty ran for 60 days, from 1 November to 30 December 2024. Requests, returns and payments all had to be in by the end of that window. Whether another program opens is announced by DOR when it happens. Penalties and interest keep accruing in the meantime.
What the 2024 program was
DOR set out the program in TIR 24-12. It was a sixty-day amnesty, from Friday 1 November 2024 through Monday 30 December 2024, open to individual and business taxpayers who met its eligibility rules. Most tax types were included, among them personal income tax, corporate excise, and sales and use tax.
The deal was straightforward. Eligible taxpayers filed delinquent or amended returns, paid the tax and interest in full, and received a waiver of most penalties. Interest itself was not waived, except interest directly attributable to the waived penalties.
Requests were made online through MassTaxConnect, one per tax type, and returns and payments had to be submitted, or postmarked, by the end of the program.
The look-back for non-filers
The part of the 2024 program that mattered most to people who had never filed was a limited three-year look-back. DOR agreed that a non-filer who filed and paid for every return of a particular tax type due from 1 January 2022 through 31 December 2024 would not be required to file or pay for earlier periods of that tax type, and would not be audited on them.
That is a significant concession. Outside an amnesty, Massachusetts can assess tax at any time where no return was filed.
It had limits. It did not apply where DOR had already been in contact with the taxpayer, or a related taxpayer, about that tax type, and it did not apply to a business that had collected sales tax from customers and kept it. Those taxpayers could still get the penalty waiver, but not the look-back.
WHO COULD NOT USE THE 2024 PROGRAM
- Taxpayers who were or had been the subject of a tax-related criminal investigation or prosecution, unless exonerated
- Taxpayers in active bankruptcy
- Taxpayers who had already settled the same tax type and period with the Commissioner
- Taxpayers with pending litigation where the Appellate Tax Board or a court had already ruled for the Commissioner on the issue
- Taxpayers seeking a refund, and periods already covered by the 2015 or 2016 amnesty legislation
Several tax types were also excluded altogether, including the deeds excise, the bottle deposit, the jet fuel excise and paid family and medical leave contributions. TIR 24-12 has the full list.
Why waiting for the next one is a gamble
Amnesty programs in Massachusetts are one-off events. TIR 24-12 itself refers back to programs under legislation in 2015 and 2016, which gives a sense of how irregular they are. There is no schedule, and a program can be short, as the 2024 one was.
Meanwhile nothing stops. Penalties and interest accrue every month, DOR can assess an unfiled year at any time, and an account that DOR has already contacted can lose the look-back benefit even if a program does open. Contact from DOR is exactly what tends to happen to an account that is left alone.
The practical approach is to get the returns prepared and the numbers known now. If a program is announced, you are ready to use it in the window. If not, you file and deal with the balance through the ordinary routes: payment, a payment agreement, or abatement of penalties for reasonable cause.
What to have ready either way
Whether or not an amnesty ever opens, the same preparation serves: a list of every Massachusetts tax type and period you should have filed, the returns prepared from reconstructed records where the originals are gone, and a figure for the tax and interest.
The 2024 program also showed how DOR treats amnesty filings afterward. It kept the right to audit any return filed under the program within the normal time limits, and it treated payments as voluntary and applied them to the periods on the request. Returns prepared quickly to meet a deadline were not exempt from scrutiny later.
For the federal side, there is no equivalent program. IRS penalty relief comes through first-time abatement and reasonable cause, and it is requested case by case.
Where this comes from
The statutes behind this page, so you can check any of it rather than take it on trust.
- TIR 24-12
- DOR's Technical Information Release setting out the 2024 amnesty program: dates, eligibility, benefits, exclusions and procedure.
- M.G.L. c. 62C §33
- The late filing and late payment penalties, among those the 2024 program waived for eligible taxpayers.
- M.G.L. c. 62C §26(d)
- Where no return was filed, the Commissioner may assess at any time. The program's look-back was a departure from that for the periods it covered.
This page explains what the IRS or the Massachusetts Department of Revenue does and cites the statute. It is not advice about your situation, which depends on facts none of this knows. Tell us what your letter says and what date is on it. Please do not send Social Security numbers or tax documents through the form.
Massachusetts DOR debt
Resolving a federal balance does nothing for a state one. Massachusetts has its own assessment periods, its own collection powers, its own appeal route and its own personal liability rule for trustee taxes.
Catching up unfiled returns
Most tax problems start here, and no resolution is approved until the returns are in. The work is records first, returns second, and it serves the IRS and the Department of Revenue from the same file.
Penalty abatement
Two separate routes with different tests. One depends only on a clean compliance history and is granted administratively. The other depends on what happened and why, and is argued.
DOR payment agreement
A payment plan with the Department of Revenue has two tiers, split by the size of the balance. The smaller tier can be set up online; the larger one needs a financial statement and documents. Both need every return filed first.
Questions about massachusetts tax amnesty.
- Is there a Massachusetts tax amnesty right now?
- The most recent program, under TIR 24-12, ran from 1 November to 30 December 2024 and has closed. DOR announces any new program when it happens. Check DOR's own website rather than relying on a third party, and do not assume one is coming.
- What did the 2024 amnesty waive?
- Most tax penalties, for eligible taxpayers who filed the required returns and paid the tax and interest in full during the program. Interest was not waived, except interest directly attributable to the waived penalties.
- What was the three-year look-back?
- A non-filer who filed and paid all returns of a tax type due from 1 January 2022 through 31 December 2024 was not required to file or pay for earlier periods of that type. It did not apply where DOR had already contacted the taxpayer about that tax type.
- Could I use the amnesty if DOR had already sent me a notice?
- Possibly for the penalty waiver, but not usually for the look-back. TIR 24-12 said a taxpayer DOR had contacted about a tax type might not qualify for the look-back on it, though it could still benefit from the waiver of penalties.
- Is there a federal tax amnesty?
- No equivalent program exists. Federal penalty relief is requested case by case, through the first-time abatement waiver or a showing of reasonable cause.
Tell us what the letter says and what date is on it.
Scope and price in writing before anything starts. Where what you need is something we do not do, you will be told that instead.
Please don't send Social Security numbers or tax documents through this form.