Omniscient

So your logic that “effective taxes aren’t that high” is partly to suggest that because you’re taxed so much for the house ($10k property pax write off limit) and that houses are so much money (high interest payments to write off), that the taxes you pay for State aren’t that bad, because you’ll exceed standard deduction and will itemize 🙄

You can’t bury the fact that in order to make itemizing worth it as a married couple, you have to max out property tax allowances and be in house debt to a level that you manage to still pay a ton on the loan interest, in a time of all time low interest rates.

That’s some special kind of California logic.

It’s basically saying “oh yeah, my AGI is lower because I wrote off $10k I paid in property taxes and $30k in mortgage interest I paid for the year for a 3 bedroom 2000’ house in California. I’m winning by only paying a 6% tax rate vs the 9% someone on the interwebs suggested.”

For the record; born and raised in CA; left and never looked back. Amortize the cost of how much each “sunny day” costs you every year.

Peacock

And the cost of living is high

full of luv

Absolutely, it has some of the most amazing attractions, both natural and man-made.....but I find it too crowded as a general rule.

gsphuntr

Ugh.. I fly for a big six cargo and my wife pulls in 6. We’re at 9.3 in CA..why on earth would we willingly hand over 9.3 when it’s ZERO in south central coastal FL..

FXLAX

You do not get a $26k standard deduction in California, it’s about $9k for married filling joint and half that for single.

The tax bracket for single:


For earnings between $0.00 and $8,223.00, you'll pay 1%
For earnings between $8,223.00 and $19,495.00, you'll pay 2% plus $82.23
For earnings between $19,495.00 and $30,769.00, you'll pay 3% plus $307.67
For earnings between $30,769.00 and $42,711.00, you'll pay 4% plus $645.89
For earnings between $42,711.00 and $53,980.00, you'll pay 8% plus $1,123.57
For earnings between $53,980.00 and $275,738.00, you'll pay 9.3% plus $2,025.09
For earnings between $275,738.00 and $330,884.00, you'll pay 10.3% plus $22,648.58
For earnings between $330,884.00 and $551,473.00, you'll pay 11.3% plus $28,328.62
For earnings between $551,473.00 and $1,000,000.00, you'll pay 12.3% plus $53,255.18
For earnings over $1,000,000.00, you'll pay 13.3% plus $108,424.00

Married filling joint:

For earnings between $0.00 and $16,446.00, you'll pay 1%
For earnings between $16,446.00 and $38,990.00, you'll pay 2% plus $164.46
For earnings between $38,990.00 and $61,538.00, you'll pay 4% plus $615.34
For earnings between $61,538.00 and $85,422.00, you'll pay 6% plus $1,517.26
For earnings between $85,422.00 and $107,960.00, you'll pay 8% plus $2,950.30
For earnings between $107,960.00 and $551,476.00, you'll pay 9.3% plus $4,753.34
For earnings between $551,476.00 and $661,768.00, you'll pay 10.3% plus $46,000.33
For earnings between $661,768.00 and $1,000,000.00, you'll pay 11.3% plus $57,360.40
For earnings between $1,000,000.00 and $1,074,996.00, you'll pay 12.3% plus $95,580.62
For earnings over $1,074,996.00, you'll pay 13.3% plus $104,805.13

In your first example, your taxable income would actually be $215 (250-26-9) and tax due equals $14,708 and effective tax rate of 6.8%. If you itemized, the tax would go down by 9.3% of the difference between your itemized deduction and the California standard deduction with a corresponding reduction in your effective tax rate.

Still very high when compared to other state income taxes. I would guess California is in the top 5 of highest income taxes.


All this can be fixed by instituting the Fair Tax and repealing the 16th amendment.

CFI Guy

Prop 13 saves me so much in property taxes (owner occupied and rental home) that my state tax is a moot point. When I retire one day, my income (along with my state taxes) will go down significantly. However, my property taxes are essentially fixed (max 2% increase per year on original purchase price). These homes will be placed into a trust and passed on to the kids (along with the tax rates).

My friends who packed up and moved to Austin a few years ago are almost being driven out by ever-increasing property taxes.

Red Forman

https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/...n-14923139.php

San Francisco spending $257,000 a day cleaning up and it hasn’t really helped.

Hossharris

Floridians!

That’s why I’m in north Florida .... same great tax structure, better beaches and fishing, less Floridians.

rickair7777

Yeah there is that, but you have to get on the escalator early and stay on it to reap the benefit. It will certainly help in retirement, although Sac will simply try to make it up elsewhere. May change residence to another state and do Cali part-time in the cold season.

RamenNoodles

I moved from FL myself a few years ago after about a decade there. I find the extra tax expense to be well worth the advantage of having so many amazing state and national parks, skiing, hiking, lakes for boating, camping etc within a few hours of driving. I also haven’t needed to turn on the HVAC more than about 10 days per year.

Everyone’s preferences are different, and that’s what is so great about this country; there is somewhere for every family. I just get irritated when people start b*tching about a state they haven’t even lived in.