Surprise: America's wealthy like warm weather and low taxes. That's the takeaway from IRS data, analyzed by Forbes, on moves between counties. They looked for counties that the rich are moving to in big numbers.
Topping the list: Collier County, Fla., which includes the city of Naples. Texas is also a popular destination. Portland, OR (genuflect when you say that) did not make the list.
The dominance of the list by Florida and Texas--the former has eight of the top 20 counties, the latter four-- makes sense to Robert Shrum, manager of state affairs at the Tax Foundation in Washington, D.C., since neither state has an income tax. "If you're a high-income earner, then that, from a tax perspective, is going to be a driving decider if you're going to move to one of those two states," Shrum says.
After accounting for property taxes, Shrum's analysis shows that Texas has the fourth-lowest personal tax burden in the country, and Florida has the eighth lowest. Shrum also points to eight states that have targeted wealthy households with extra-high tax brackets: California, New Jersey, New York, Maryland, Hawaii, Oregon, Connecticut and Wisconsin. Six of the top 10 counties the rich are fleeing are located in those states.
Read more at Forbes.Com.
I would like to provide the other side. It my life's dream to move to a high-tax area. And then to continue my history of voting for every single tax increase that I can.
ReplyDeleteOnce again, COAST does a marvelous job of cherry picking a stat and then making a blanket statement. The three lowest tax burden states are Alaska, Wyoming, and Nevada. According to your expert analysis, we should see those states growing faster in population than Tx and Fl. Sun is a quality of life issue and trumps low tax burden, just like street cars are a quality of life issue and trumps tax burden. You can't just say numbers are the reason for everything. When you can actually see people as living things with wants and desires, you will get it, until then, your business models will always be wrong.
ReplyDeleteTwo out of the three states you mention are in the top five in terms of population growth. Nevada's growth spurt happened earlier.
ReplyDeleteClearly having the government confiscate less of your money is a "quality of life" issue for a large percentage of Americans. According to Forbes, that issue is even more important for people who have a lot of money.
Trolleys attract freeloaders who suck money out of the community. Frugal governments attract rich people who pay higher taxes and invest in the community.
What? Attracting rich people improves community? Have you guys been absent 2000-2008? Cutting taxes for the wealthy just increased the wage divide, did not raise all ships. And you stating that 2 of the 3 I mentioned are in the top 5 for population growth is just plain wrong. But it would be nice to see you explain Oregon's growth, home of spurious Portland. (Oregon is in top 5).
ReplyDeleteFlorida had a net loss of people. So, how does getting rich people to move in and set up shop help build community? Rich people don't care about your schools, they send their kids to private. Rich people don't care about your health care, they can afford the best. Rich people don't care about your police, they live in gated communities. So all the big money runs to Florida while people are leaving in droves, I fail to see how you admire this. Do you just wish you could have rich people in your state that don't pay their fair share of taxes? There is a difference between rich and wealthy and you guys somehow think you're going to be wealthy someday and therefore you don't want to have to pay more when you get there.
ReplyDeleteIf you really believe in capitalism, that investment of capital garners success, why don't you ever think investing in your own community will pay a dividend? You somehow think the wealthy will do it for you?
And check your stats on pop growth vs immigrate/emigrate numbers.
I don't get this blog post. Lower taxes on small and medium businesses create jobs, that is proven. Wealthy people don't unless stipulations are in place that require investment more than just the stock market. I would rather have a sliding scale personal tax and low taxes on small businesses any day.
ReplyDeleteNew information:
ReplyDeleteFlorida's economy is fairing worse than Ohio's, unemployment rate is going up, while ours is going down.
What?
How did that happen? All the money of those rich people didn't help with their employment? Wha?
How could this be? I thought money always trickled down to us poor folk. Maybe not?
Hmmm...
I think Florida can keep their rich and we'll keep trying to employ the middle class.