Updates
April 12, 2016: along with the article linked below, there was a link to United Van Lines 39th Annual Moves Survey. In addition to the story, there is a great interactive map. When you get there be sure to click on the "video" at the bottom of the map to see the change in moves since 1978, on an annual basis. I think the results for North Dakota will surprise you. [The little grey arrow to click on is at the far right; it bleeds into the sidebar at the right.]
Original Post
CNBC is reporting: Can you move 1,200 miles just to lower your taxes? Well, David Tepper can, and it may save him hundreds of millions of dollars.
Tepper is the founder of hedge fund Appaloosa Management, and he’s worth more than $10 billion, according to Forbes. He ran his firm out of New Jersey for years, but recently moved the operation to Miami Beach. The top income tax rate in New Jersey is nearly 9%. In Florida, the top rate is 0. Tepper will save so much money that New Jersey finance officials worry that the tax revenue lost to his move could blow a hole in the state budget.
Connecticut lost a couple of billionaires as well—businessmen Thomas Peterffy and C. Dean Metropoulos, who also decamped for Florida recently. Their departure lowered Connecticut’s billionaire count from 15 to 13.
The Nutmeg State is also losing longtime corporate citizen General Electric to Boston, a move GE made after Connecticut passed big tax hikes. Florida Gov. Rick Scott even invited Yale University to ditch New Haven and relocate to the Sunshine State, to avoid a new tax some Connecticut lawmakers wanted to impose on the school’s endowment. That bill failed to pass, and Yale says it is staying put (for now).
And the problem is?
The bigger story is that it appears the writer of this story, Robert Frank -- no doubt a business writer -- after all, he titles his column "Inside Wealth" -- seems to have just discovered that a) some states do not have income taxes; and, b) some folks like to take advantage of that.
When I read that only "wealthy" folks can take advantage of that, I cry "foul." There are no restrictions or laws that preclude anyone from moving to a state that has no income tax. Or one can move to a state where income taxes are lower. To the best of my knowledge, one can find work in almost any state if one tries hard enough. At least that's the story line from various state governments and the federal government and Reuters and Bloomberg every week when the jobs data comes out.
Google "unemployment Texas" and note that the unemployment rate in Texas approaches 4% -- full employment -- and that there are many, many stories on the number of jobs being added each month. Florida, at 5.6%, is almost as good. In both states, the unemployment rate has been dropping like a Boeing 747 with all engines shut off.
So, we had Robert Frank to our list of nominees for the 2016 Geico Rock Award.
And, I guess to be fair, we have to add Rick Newman, also, who reported the same story, almost word-for-word. As usual, the comments are more entertaining than the article.
The bigger story is that it appears the writer of this story, Robert Frank -- no doubt a business writer -- after all, he titles his column "Inside Wealth" -- seems to have just discovered that a) some states do not have income taxes; and, b) some folks like to take advantage of that.
When I read that only "wealthy" folks can take advantage of that, I cry "foul." There are no restrictions or laws that preclude anyone from moving to a state that has no income tax. Or one can move to a state where income taxes are lower. To the best of my knowledge, one can find work in almost any state if one tries hard enough. At least that's the story line from various state governments and the federal government and Reuters and Bloomberg every week when the jobs data comes out.
Google "unemployment Texas" and note that the unemployment rate in Texas approaches 4% -- full employment -- and that there are many, many stories on the number of jobs being added each month. Florida, at 5.6%, is almost as good. In both states, the unemployment rate has been dropping like a Boeing 747 with all engines shut off.
So, we had Robert Frank to our list of nominees for the 2016 Geico Rock Award.
And, I guess to be fair, we have to add Rick Newman, also, who reported the same story, almost word-for-word. As usual, the comments are more entertaining than the article.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.