State Income Tax: not always perfect

[marko]

Just a reminder. Not all "educated" are high earners (re: need for student loan forgiveness), and not all "uneducated" are low earners (re: trades, CNC Ops, Maint Techs, etc).

Flieger

There's always exceptions (and I would hardly consider your examples as "uneducated") but I trust you got my broader point.

 

[davidfin]

I live in Oregon and Oregon is not thought of as a retirement friendly state. Now that I’m collecting Social Security, Oregon has become more friendly as SS benefits are exempt from state income taxes. So no sales tax, exempt SS benefits, gorgeous weather and scenery plus a lack of cataclysmic weather like tornadoes, hurricanes and baseball size hail, I think we’ll stick it out. It helps to snowbird 2 months in the winter.

 

[HarveyS]

We've friends who draw hefty California pensions and built a place in Pahrump NV (not the scenic/resort capitol of the world) to avoid Ca state tax. They are very careful about showing their financial heads here in the sunshine state, which has some really aggressive tax collection computer goons.

Uh, did you mean Golden State?

 

[Koolau]

Of course there's more to gaining or losing population. If your educated high earners are leaving and being replaced by more uneducated low earners thats not a true net gain.

Head count, yes but adding to the tax base and overall quality of life, maybe no.

The site only talks about population gains or losses. No economic info is included. Hawaii has a "brain drain" as students complete degrees and can not find j*bs that use their education. We have a very high birth rate, so the loss is even more troubling. YMMV

 

[threeonesix]

I live in Oregon and Oregon is not thought of as a retirement friendly state. Now that I’m collecting Social Security, Oregon has become more friendly as SS benefits are exempt from state income taxes. So no sales tax, exempt SS benefits, gorgeous weather and scenery plus a lack of cataclysmic weather like tornadoes, hurricanes and baseball size hail, I think we’ll stick it out. It helps to snowbird 2 months in the winter.

Oregon was my intended, dream retirement location, until the last half decade. Way too many fires in the warm months and temps have been getting into the 100's regularly, even in Eugene and Medford, my two chosen locations. I'm afraid that is going to be the new norm, not the outlier years.

 

[athena53]

TLDR

When I encounter stories like this, where an author claims that wealthy people are abandoning their home states for financial reasons, I always wonder ... who are these people who are willing to leave their families and friends just to save a little money.

Many have two homes, one near family and the other in the low-tax state. The smart one like my brother are scrupulous about maintaining enough presence in the latter (number of days, church membership, doctors, car registrations) to qualify it as their primary residence.