• protist
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    5 months ago

    Jared Walczak, vice president of state projects at the think tank Tax Foundation, wrote in November that “a Washington state revenue official was probably moved to tears” with Bezos’ announcement that he was moving to Miami.

    “And whether tax savings motivated his move or not, the implications for Washington are very real, and serve to illustrate just how dangerous it can be to design tax systems that rely so overwhelmingly on a very small number of taxpayers choosing to stay put,” Walczak wrote.

    Jared Walczak is as dumb as a bag of bricks if he thinks the people or government of Washington state give two fucks about whether Jeff Bezos lives there.

    In his post on Instagram announcing the move away from Seattle, Bezos said he wanted be closer to family in Miami and operations for his Blue Origin space venture. He did not mention taxes.

    Lmao one of the richest men in the world decides he wants to live in Miami, where there are beautiful beaches and tropical weather, instead of Seattle, where there’s drizzle, and ol’ Jared says “See!! That’s 'cause taxes!!” Jeff Bezos has so much money he wouldn’t even notice the taxes he would’ve owed. I hope more states institute similar capital gains taxes

    • Neuromancer@lemm.eeOPM
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      5 months ago

      Florida doesn’t have a state income tax. It’s why many wealthy people are moving to Florida.

      That’s my main motivation to moving to Florida. I want to get away from oppressive taxes

      • protist
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        5 months ago

        Bro…Washington State doesn’t have an income tax either

        • Neuromancer@lemm.eeOPM
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          5 months ago

          Snap you are correct. I’m in Oregon

          They do have a capital gains tax

          • protist
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            5 months ago

            Every state has taxes. I live in Texas and we have property taxes out the ass. The total effective tax rate difference between Texas and Oregon is something like 2%. The difference is even smaller between Oregon and Florida

              • protist
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                5 months ago

                Those 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

                • Neuromancer@lemm.eeOPM
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                  5 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
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                    5 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

                • protist
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                  5 months ago

                  The numbers that guy cited include federal income taxes and Medicare/SS taxes

                • Neuromancer@lemm.eeOPM
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                  5 months ago

                  State is around 9.9 for Oregon vs Florida 0

                  That number quoted at 23% is for various taxes and not just income

        • Neuromancer@lemm.eeOPM
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          5 months ago

          Nice weather. Low tax structure. Disney world.

          It’s why it’s a fast growing state.

          • AwkwardLookMonkeyPuppet@lemmy.world
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            5 months ago

            One of the worst medical systems in the country, venomous reptiles, arachnids, and insects everywhere, cockroaches the size of a silver dollar, alligators that eat your pets, humid weather that’s impossible to cool off in, rising elderly homelessness, a housing crisis, hurricanes every year, and a governor who is intent on setting progress back 100 years. There are a lot of reasons not to move there too.

          • Drusas@kbin.run
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            5 months ago

            lol, nice weather. If you want to start sweating as soon as you step out the door and don’t mind not being able to insure your house due to storms.