Comments on: Cost of Living I: State Taxes

By: edmund samph

edmund samph — Wed, 26 May 2010 19:29:42 +0000

I think ideal scenario might be live in Vancouver Washington which has low property taxes and no state income tax, drive over the Columbia river and
do all your shopping in Portland Oregon which has no sales tax. Problem with Oregon is they make up the difference in no revenue from sales taxes by having high property taxes. So you can not leave property taxes out of the overall analysis. Then again trying to find the perfect place to live, you still have to find an income or job. Both Washington and Oregon have some of the highest min wages 9$+ hr but few people leave their jobs so moving there and finding work is problematic. Calif. has more jobs but also higher taxes and more cost of living problems like un-affordable housing costs from San Diego to San Fransisco. Fresno is cheaper but limited jobs unless you are working in agriculture. As Bart Simpson would say: you are damned if you do and damned if you don’t!

By: J Ouyang

J Ouyang — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 23:12:27 +0000

Your income tax figures are way off when looking at the total cost of living income is only part of the story and how can you ignore the property taxes in each state
An example is Texas which it has no state income tax has about 50 of the top 100 highest property tax cities in the USA .

By: PQuincy

PQuincy — Fri, 29 May 2009 00:49:00 +0000

I’m a little worried about an economist who leaves property taxes out of the picture when calculating the tax burden….and differences in property tax would change this list rather a lot, I suspect (as a property owner in New Jersey and California, the latter paying taxes on its value in 1972+1% inflation since!)

By: Southern California Real Estate Bubble Crash Blog » Blog Archive » California’s Crisis

Wed, 20 May 2009 21:30:35 +0000

[...] state is screwed. Its residents already pay some of the highest total taxes of any state. Couple that with the high cost of living and you’ve got serious trouble brewing in the [...]

By: Healthcare Economist · California raises state sales tax 1%

Healthcare Economist · California raises state sales tax 1% — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 19:33:51 +0000

[...] weeks ago I did a piece looking at the cost of living in different states. One major dimension of the cost of living is state sales and incomes taxes. With the recent [...]

By: Keith

Keith — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 20:50:08 +0000

Alaska has high property taxes. Even if you don’t buy, you still pay via higher rents to your landlord.

By: jamzo

jamzo — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 19:45:44 +0000

$60K and $100K and worried about marginal tax costs?

By: Jason

Jason — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 16:41:54 +0000

Hopefully this will end of the myth of Taxachusetts.

Come to Boston

By: J

Thu, 12 Feb 2009 08:08:09 +0000

While I cannot comment on brewing my own beer, nor distilling my own port, I have lived in both Texas and CA. CA has a higher sales tax *and* income tax. Why? Because CA requires online retailers to charge for the sales tax over the internet. TX does not. CA does have higher liquor prices in bars (but, in my experience, you basically just pay for “top shelf” no matter what). Just remember that state taxation of internet purchases (goods or services, an especially important distinction for businesses) is different from a sales tax (in effect). Taxation is composed of Federal/State Income/State Sales Tax/State Internet Sales Tax in the modern economy. The statutory schemes will catch up eventually…

By: Mike

Mike — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 07:46:44 +0000

The sales tax data appears to be out of date, at least for HI: it is 4.712% on Oahu. If one state has incorrect data, I suspect some other do. Of course, that only matters if you are on the margin b/t two states. Here is some more tax information:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sales_taxes_in_the_United_States

Also, you are not counting liquor taxes, which I believe are separate from standard sales taxes. Beer drinkers pay a lot here in HI, which is why I started to brew my own beer. CA also has an above-average liquor tax.