Name:
Location: Pantego, Texas, United States

Wednesday, August 27, 2008

White people have been leaving California and moving to Arizona and Nevada for some time now because of high taxes and expensive home prices. I think the California income tax is flat at 9.5% for income over $45,000 and 10.5% over $1,000,000. This is enough to drive professional golfers like Tiger Woods to Florida, which has no state income tax. Here is a tax proposal that should drive even more people out of California in the unlikely event that it is approved by the voters. The exit tax is particularly interesting. The Clinton Administration tried to figure out how to impose such a tax on people fleeing the US to escape the higher taxes that were being contemplated. After Republicans gained control of Congress in 1994 these considerations became moot, since higher taxes were politically impossible. If Obama is elected President, such taxes will once more be considered to prevent the capital flight that will inevitably occur if Democrats are able to impose their desired policies. Here is the story on the currently proposed California tax law.

California Ballot Initiative to Impose 45% Income Tax, 55% Wealth Tax & 36%-54% Exit Tax
A California activist is trying to gather the 694,354 signatures needed to place a tax initiative on the ballot that would:

Impose a new 35% income surtax (in addition to federal taxes and the existing 10.3% top state rate) -- 17.5% (on all of the taxpayer's income) when income exceeds $150,000 (single)/$250,000 (joint), and an additional 17.5% (again, on all of the taxpayer's income) when income exceeds $350,000 (single)/$500,000 (joint).
Impose a one-time 55% wealth tax on assets exceeding $20 million held by a California resident or held in California by nonresident.
Impose an exit tax of between 36.5% to 54.3% on both income and unrealized appreciation in asset values over $5 million when a resident dies or leaves California.
See Roth & Co., Tax Foundation, and Taxable Talk.

0 Comments:

Post a Comment

<< Home