I Keep Hearing About The Rich Moving To Florida To Avoid State Income Tax......

[global1]

how does Florida do it? How can they provide services, etc without a state tax? Or Are they now in trouble like most states? I know at least two wealthy people that moved to Florida in the past couple of years. What gives?

[Lint Head]

1. TN does not have a state income tax. sales tax is high.

[global1]

2. Is Tenn Having Financial Problems? .......

if not an they are prospering - why don't other states follow suit?

[DJ13]

3. High sales taxes hurt the poor more than the wealthy

The poor spend most all their paychecks (if they are even working), the wealthy spend far less as a percentage of their income.

[SharonAnn]

9. TN does have a tax on investment income (dividends, etc.) of 6%

Tennessee Individual Income Tax

The "Hall Tax"

Many people believe Tennessee does not have an income tax for individuals. Although Tennessee does not tax "wage" income (as most other states do), Tennessee does have an individual income tax, known as the Hall Tax.

Enacted in 1929, this tax was originally called the Hall income tax for the senator who sponsored the legislation. The law can be found in Tennessee Code Annotated in Title 67, Chapter 2.

The individual income tax is imposed on individuals, partnerships, LLCs, Estates, and trusts and other entities receiving interest and dividends. Some types of interest and dividends which may be taxable on your federal return will be exempt from Tennessee taxation.

http://www.petertuttlecpa.com/Tennessee%20Income%20Tax.htm

[justabob]

4. Texas doesn't have state tax either

We pay 8.25% sales tax in Dallas. Texas does it by being at the bottom of all the good things lists and at the top of all the bad things lists. I mean services and whatnot are minimal, at best. Texas supposedly has been better off than a lot of places economics wise, but really this next budget is going to be a nightmare and a great many people are going to suffer.

[proud2BlibKansan]

12. 10% sales tax here AND we have state income tax too

Services used to be great in Kansas but not so much anymore. Thank you Republicans. Not.

[justabob]

16. that is terrible

10% is high for sales tax... I thought 8.25% was bad. To have to pay more state tax on top of that must really suck. I am sorry to hear that.

[w8liftinglady]

14. exactly...half-paved streets and bridges...except near Cowboy Stadium.

Parkland Hospital OVERFLOWING with the uninsured(and it's already huge)
Schools in poor districts falling apart.
Texas definitely has a distinction between the Haves and have-nots.

[justabob]

15. yes, it is awful

I am very seriously considering moving out of state. I don't quite have the resources to do it yet though. The quality of life here is already pretty low, and it will only get worse with Perry and the rest of the gang in office for four more years.

[slackmaster]

17. Property taxes in some parts of Texas are outrageous

My cousin in Houston is engaged in an ongoing battle to keep his at a reasonable level.

[justabob]

19. true, but that varies wildly from neighborhood to neighborhood

and block to block really. Sometimes I am glad I own so very little.

[slackmaster]

23. The really funny thing about real estate in Texas is the supposed "non-disclosure" of sales prices

When the past and present tax rates and the amount of tax billed each year to any particular parcel is public information. Calculating what someone paid for a house is trivial.

[w8liftinglady]

26. there is also a lot of corruption in that area.

My partner lives in Henderson County, home to Cedar Creek lake, multimillion dollar lake houses, twenty thousand dollar mobile homes(off the lake), and they have seen 4 county commissioners due to graft.We have seen similar events in Ellis County-but nothing like theirs.
His property taxes quadrupled in three years.the roads are little better than dirt roads,and they stopped almost all services(they have a volunteer FD for a lake with a population in the thousands in summer)
yep. Ain't Texas grand...all our dirty secrets?

[Incitatus]

5. I believe FL is about 3 billion in the red right now.

Tourism does generate a lot of revenue for the state.

[givemebackmycountry]

8. No worries!

RICK SCOTT takes over this week!
We just turned the whole fucking state over to the biggest Medicare fraud asswipe in the history of the entire freaking country, EVER!

WHAT COULD POSSIBLY GO WRONG?

[Incitatus]

10. Yes, he wants to lower property taxes by 19% when the state is in debt.

This should be interesting.

[Divine Discontent]

21. yes, the jerk will be asking for budgets to be axed for those most needy in society, all so those

who live in mansions in guarded and gated communities can save $10,000 grand more each, while those millions get yanked out of the budgets for services for the suffering...

what a piece of work he is. I cannot believe 50% of voters could actually pull the lever for a guy that owned the Rangers with Dubya back in the 90's and got rich off his company gouging medicare...

just sickening...

gov. gollum has about 200 Million dollars to his name, btw... ah! being associated with Dubya pays...

[TheCowsCameHome]

6. Good luck with that.

I'd suffer elsewhere before I'd move there.

[proud2BlibKansan]

13. I don't like the weather in Florida

Every time I have ever been to Florida, it has rained. And then it's humid. Yuck. We have humidity here in boring Kansas. Why leave and go to another humid place? LOL

[TheCowsCameHome]

28. Crowded, humid, hot, overbuilt.

Nothing there that interests me, thanks.

[Not Me]

7. We hit up the tourists...

They come to the beaches and the theme parks. All those hotels and rental cars have steep taxes. In addition, they spend on food, etc. adding to the general sales tax base.

Orange County just constructed a $750Mil basketball arena paid for with hotel taxes.

[givemebackmycountry]

11. They ain't called "The Magic" for nuthin'

And the "name" of this Palace?
I've been in it, it's hands down the best arena in the NBA and maybe the country.

"THE AMWAY CENTER"

DU, if that ain't through the looking glass, I don't know what is.

[flvegan]

18. One of the big reasons I moved here over 20 years ago.

I think they relied on tourism and the taxes that brought in for quite some time. Are we in trouble? Oh, yes. Very much so.

[teenagebambam]

20. I've lived in three different cities in Florida

and I can assure you, if I was wealthy it would be the LAST place I would live willingly.

[2Design]

22. john travota, tiger woods, burt reynolds, celine dione, donald trump

they all have places in florida, there are a bunch of taxes that those who actually live here pay on a daily basis. Not the cheapest place to live

[JCMach1]

24. The article I read yesterday said 3.5 billion expected state budget shortfall with the gov.

Rick Scott (R, Medicare Fraud) calling for a 19% cut in property taxes, cuts in state pensions, privatization of prisons and school vouchers for all!

i.e. Florida is F'ed!

[quaker bill]

25. We don't do it all that well

The budget has been slashed the last two years and we are going into this year 3 billion short. The stimulus helped make up the shortfall the last two years, but that well has run dry.

Our schools are funded at levels that rank us 41 among the states. The 41 rank is statewide, some places are well below that level, and some places well above it. Tuition at state colleges has gone up roughly 15 percent a year for the last several years (I know, I have a kid in one of them).

The cuts are about to go from harsh and unfortunate to simply stupid.

We used to make up a lot of the revenue through impact fees on new homes, and property taxes. Houses pretty much aren't being built anymore. Home values have fallen sharply. Some places have a tourist bed tax that helps, which sort of works in places like Orlando and some of the beaches, but many of the inland counties see very few of these dollars and are really quite poor and still get by on cows, citrus, winter produce, pulpwood, and phosphate mines.

[Sancho]

27. How does FL do it?

Most of the economy here is underground! If anyone is hired to do anything - it's an undocumented immigrant doing the work! There are low taxes that are unstable generated by tourism and lotteries. Our "richees" will fight behind the scene to make sure that NONE Of the millions of people working here will ever vote or earn citizenship because if they did this would be the most Democratic state that you can imagine!

Meanwhile, there are exclusive neighborhoods everywhere with many millionaires who horde money, privately fly in and out internationally carrying wealth out of the country to hide it, and depend on the state to be an open door for all sorts of illegal activities.

FL had a 17% increase in the last census, and the legislature HATES spending money on schools, health care, or any other social services. Honestly, some of our GOPer's are closet racists and would keep slaves on plantations if they could legally do it. Fl is the home of gerrymandering, hacking voting machines, and every trick in the book to keep the repubs in power. Elections here are amazingly rigged - and I've seen it first hand over and over.

Sorry Kansas, but it mostly rains in the summer and the rest of the year has great weather. I was wearing shorts this week and sailing on Tampa Bay.

[CBGLuthier]

29. By screwing the poor with fees and consumption taxes.

The american way!!!

[Freddie Stubbs]

30. Property taxes, sales taxes, business taxes

Yes, Florida is in financial trouble like most states, including those that have income taxes.