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pennant_fever t1_itxb1w4 wrote

Reply to comment by modernhomeowner in PSA: Vet your Sources [Question 1] by RonBurgundy35

Let me get this straight. Someone making $1.1 million per year is going to leave their home and move to another state, potentially hundreds of miles away, because they’ll be taxed an extra $4,000 per year? That’s about 1 day of wages, or the equivalent of an annual increase of $120 (or $10/month) to someone making MA’s $15/hour minimum wage. Which would be (and has been) a much more painful increase.

Of course, for higher earners, the pain of this increase is even less, as they’re clearing more income.

The existence of people making millions per year while so many are struggling is immoral. Contributing one day of wages if you make more than $1 million per year is, frankly, not enough. But it’s a start, and no one who actually wants to live here or do business here would ever move away because of it.

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modernhomeowner t1_itxbyl6 wrote

Someone earning 1.1, may not leave. 2, maybe, 5, likely, 10 or 20, it would be on top of mind for sure. If I'm making $10M a year, paying $500,000 to MA, plus everything I pay to the US (and if US raises, you'll see even more leave MA), I'd feel like it was a smack in the face that you now want $860,000, a 72% increase. Rich people aren't dumb, and they are generous to the causes they want to be.. if they don't think the State of Massachusetts, who had a surplus last year, is a cause they want to be 72% more generous to, they will leave. They don't need to sell their home, they can just spend 183 days outside the state, something they may vary well be close to anyway. People think it is so hard to move states, it's super easy when you have people to pack for you.. and if you already have that ski cabin in NH, and by spending a few extra weeks in the summer takes your taxes back down to 5% for investments, or $0 for earned income, why not just spend that extra time there, and give a middle finger to the ungrateful people of MA who sent out postcards calling you greedy.

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TheLittleGardenia t1_itxi87p wrote

This is the silliest thing ever - rich people don’t care that much about that money. Convenience is way more important

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modernhomeowner t1_itxj3qm wrote

Any other sub on Reddit is about rich people being greedy and doing anything to get out of taxes... Except apparently in MA, apparently we all seem to think rich people are upstanding citizens who don't care about money and can't wait to pay more taxes.

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TheLittleGardenia t1_itxjn8j wrote

There’s a meaningful difference between filing taxes to reduce tax burden and actually moving your family. Not sure how this is hard to understand

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modernhomeowner t1_itxlfyx wrote

They don't have to go far, they don't even have to actually move, just extend the time in their vacation homes so their tax burden gets shifted to that state. People do it all the time. People left whole countries to avoid high taxes, they left Greece in droves. My parents live in Florida, and most of their neighborhood are people who left NY or Illinois to save $10 or $20k in taxes, the guy next door moved his kids and mother in law from Oregon, and everytime I'm there the neighbors talk about how much they save in taxes and ask when am I coming. It's totally nieve to think someone wouldn't at the least just spend extra time in a vacation home to avoid taxes. I know people who work in Boston but work from home in NH just to avoid wage tax a few days a week.

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SLEEyawnPY t1_itydqoi wrote

>If I'm making $10M a year

If you were making $10M a year and living in MA, but were young enough/responsibility-free/attachment-free enough such that you can just pick up and move in relatively short order, "why are you still here" would be my first question!

Our gorgeous weather, white sand beaches, and stunningly beautiful local population of eligible bachelors/bachelorettes?

>They don't need to sell their home, they can just spend 183 days outside the state, something they may vary well be close to anyway.

Right, so why fret over the inevitable. Not much point in trying to convince someone not to bail out who's already packed their bags and has a foot out the door, anyway, seems like a lost cause at that point.

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