Comment on Jeff Bezos keeps selling Amazon stock after announcing his move out of Washington state
protist@mander.xyz 4 months agoThose numbers you just cited are the total effective state and federal income tax rates, and only the income tax rates. It doesn’t account for property taxes or sales taxes, which is how states without income taxes fund their governments. Oregon has no sales tax, for example, but in Texas we have a 7% state sales tax. Texas’s median property tax rate is more than double Oregon’s too.
State and local effective tax rate
Oregon: 10.8% Texas: 8.6% Florida: 9.1%
The reason there’s such a crusade against income tax coming from the right is because property and sales taxes are much more regressive, shifting much of the tax burden to people who have lower incomes and letting the wealthiest keep more of their money. In the end, the total average tax burden is roughly the same in most states, it’s who pays that tax burden that’s different.
I think every state should have an income tax and eliminate or reduce sales and property taxes. I think every state should implement capital gains taxes too. The wealth inequality in the US is out of control
wintermute_oregon@lemm.ee 4 months ago
We don’t have sales tax in Oregon. The property tax is high but not horrible. Texas has a brutal property tax.
Do you have context to what the diagram is claiming?
protist@mander.xyz 4 months ago
The map I shared is the total average state and local tax burden by state, accounting for all forms of taxes. My point is the total tax burdens in Florida and Texas are only marginally lower than Oregon, so if you move to Florida, you’re going to discover you really aren’t going to save much money in the end, because you’re not Jeff Bezos liquidating $50 million in stock on a whim
wintermute_oregon@lemm.ee 4 months ago
It saved bezos 600 million. Based on my calculations it’ll save me about 1000 a month in expanses. You have to take the total tax burden as my first article had to realize the real savings in moving. The SALT cap is one difference from blue to red. Since blue states tend to have higher state and local taxes, you cap the tax deduction which I won’t do in Florida. The overall cost of living is cheaper as well. But no I won’t save bezos money but I will save another persons income amount.
protist@mander.xyz 4 months ago
Again, you’re saying you’re going to save $1K a month in income taxes, but that doesn’t account for the 6% sales tax you’re going to be paying on everything you buy, or the higher property taxes.
The cost of living in FL is going to vary dramatically depending on where you go, there are many areas that are even more expensive than anywhere in Oregon. Also, you’re going to struggle to find homeowners insurance and will be at high risk of catastrophic weather, which costs money to repair/replace your home and vehicle. And honestly the culture is awful in many of the parts of FL I’ve been to