this post was submitted on 08 Jul 2024

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Jeff Bezos keeps selling Amazon stock after announcing his move out of Washington state (www.geekwire.com)

submitted 1 month ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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[–] [email protected] 19 points 1 month ago (2 children)

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

[–] [email protected] 12 points 1 month ago

Washington State doesn't even have an income tax...

[+] [email protected] -27 points 1 month ago (2 children)

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

[–] [email protected] 27 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Bro...Washington State doesn't have an income tax either

[+] [email protected] -10 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (2 children)

Snap you are correct. I’m in Oregon

They do have a capital gains tax

[–] [email protected] 15 points 1 month ago (1 children)

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

[–] [email protected] -5 points 1 month ago (2 children)

https://www.usnews.com/news/best-states/articles/2022-01-24/these-states-have-the-highest-and-lowest-income-tax-burdens-study-finds

Oregon

Oregon’s effective income tax rate of 23.37% for individuals

Florida

Florida – one of nine states without state income taxes, all of whom rank in the bottom 10 of FinanceBuzz’s burden list – had an effective rate of 15.52

[–] [email protected] 14 points 1 month ago (1 children)

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

[+] [email protected] -9 points 1 month ago (1 children)

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?

[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 month ago (1 children)

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

[+] [email protected] -7 points 1 month ago (1 children)

It saved bezos 600 million. Based on my calculations it’ll save me about 1000 a month in expanses. You have to take the total tax burden as my first article had to realize the real savings in moving. The SALT cap is one difference from blue to red. Since blue states tend to have higher state and local taxes, you cap the tax deduction which I won’t do in Florida. The overall cost of living is cheaper as well. But no I won’t save bezos money but I will save another persons income amount.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Again, you're saying you're going to save $1K a month in income taxes, but that doesn't account for the 6% sales tax you're going to be paying on everything you buy, or the higher property taxes.

The cost of living in FL is going to vary dramatically depending on where you go, there are many areas that are even more expensive than anywhere in Oregon. Also, you're going to struggle to find homeowners insurance and will be at high risk of catastrophic weather, which costs money to repair/replace your home and vehicle. And honestly the culture is awful in many of the parts of FL I've been to

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 month ago (2 children)

Fuckin yikes! Are you sure it's that high for State income tax?

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 month ago

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

[–] [email protected] -5 points 1 month ago

State is around 9.9 for Oregon vs Florida 0

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

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 month ago (1 children)

But you guys don't have sales tax. We pay over 10% on everything we buy.

[–] [email protected] -5 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

No sales tax but the cost of everything has went up drastically the last few years.

Oregon use to be very cheap. Those days are gone.

If I take my family out to eat, it’s about 1/2 the cost in Florida.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 month ago (1 children)

What do you mean by overnight?

[–] [email protected] -3 points 1 month ago (1 children)

It means I hate autocorrect. Fixed it. Everything. The cost of everything has went up.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 month ago

Ah gotcha. Yes it sure has. Almost overnight!

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 month ago (1 children)

I think you'd be right at home in Florida, I understand why you would wanna move there

[+] [email protected] -6 points 1 month ago (2 children)

Nice weather. Low tax structure. Disney world.

It’s why it’s a fast growing state.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 1 month ago (1 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 month ago (1 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] -4 points 1 month ago

I’m self insured on that property.