Now, the housing market is not great but again, greatly overstating your case is not an effective strategy, and it isn’t a uniquely California problem even though prop 13 makes it worse there than many other places.
Show me a married couple both working in tech in California which is what this website is for and show me their average tax rate. It will be almost 40% at the lower end of this income range. This stuff is not rocket science.
Then do the sales tax as well. I’m not exaggerating anything. This is why my family and so many others moved from the state during COVID.
Have fun buying tiny $2-3 million dollar homes paying 40%.
>Show me a married couple both working in tech in California
I didn't know everyone on this site met their spouses at work. Statistics say that's been dwindling for 15 years or so. Then you account for the 20-30% of women in tech (and the fact that not every woman wants to marry a techie)...
Still, congrats on your situation.
>Have fun buying tiny $2-3 million dollar homes paying 40%.
Well, I'm single (with worse rates) and CA is 9.3% for my bracket + 24% federal. Doesn't seem too unreasonable. Sounds more like a housing issue than a tax issue.
It's also why I live out in a suburb. I know people online these days glamorize walkable cities, but California right now isn't very "walkable", even if we could redesign everything tomorrow. Lot of other deep seeded issues to solve first.
You’re the one making the claim, why can’t you show us your calculations? I can’t reproduce your numbers unless you’re assuming a truly massive real-estate assessment.
These are the rates and includes a over million 1% tax for mental support.
California 13.3%
Hawaii 11%
New York 10.9%
New Jersey 10.75%
District of Columbia 10.75%
Oregon 9.9%
Minnesota 9.85%
Massachusetts 9%
Vermont 8.75%
Wisconsin 7.65%
Tax burden is a different measurement including property. Parent poster has no property.
So, yes, if you’re making millions per year in taxable income, California’s top rate is higher. That is not a concern for anyone outside of the 99.5th percentile, which is uncommon even in FAANG circles.
Tax burden is also the best metric to use because the money has to come from somewhere. If you’re trying to decide where to live, looking at state income tax only is as foolish as only looking at housing purchase prices without also considering your commute, utility, and maintenance expenses.
> So, yes, if you’re making millions per year in taxable income, California’s top rate is higher.
But isn't that what "top rate" meant in the first place? It doesn't mean "median".
Seems like you're moving the goal posts over a few percentage points. Whether it's 12% or 14.4%[0], it's very high.
And at some point those very wealthy and highly mobile people start thinking, "maybe we should crunch the data and do what other wealthy people are doing: find a state with a more reasonable tax bite."
Remember that I was correcting someone who hyperbolically claimed California “taxes are the highest in the country and take almost 40% of your income” in a thread claiming that taxes were high enough to make California employee-unfriendly. Whether it’s the 2023 or 2024 rate, they were arguing triple the actual rate and very, very, very few employees in the state are paying even that top rate. Even the WSJ editorial board–hardly neutral–clearly state that this only applies to people making over $1M a year (the top 1% starts around $550k, so that’s pretty elite!).
If you want to accuse anyone of shifting goalposts, start with the people trying to portray the concerns of the top .1% as employee issues.
I find it weird that people quote top-tax-bracket rates and try to use tha tto directly compare state taxes.
That's nonsensical. You need to compare the effective tax rate that people pay.
When I was making bank at tech, sure, I was in CA's top tax bracket. But I never paid that rate across all my income. My effective tax rate was quite a bit lower.
> But I never paid that rate across all my income. My effective tax rate was quite a bit lower.
This seems to be a strangely common cognitive pitfall - I’ve seen so many people talk about progressive tax rates that way, even claiming that a raise would cost them money, and it’s not like this is a secret or requires advanced math skills.
But it does require thinking about more than just the headline. A lot of people are lazy (I don’t mean that as a moral issue, just literally) and don’t want to think for themselves, so often they simply parrot.
Then do the sales tax as well. I’m not exaggerating anything. This is why my family and so many others moved from the state during COVID.
Have fun buying tiny $2-3 million dollar homes paying 40%.