State taxes (Boston, Newton, Woburn: hotel, luxury, school districts)

[blessedme]

I asked this question on NH forum and was advised to ask here as well:
If you live in NH, but work in MA, do you still pay MA state income tax??

Thank you

[mustmove]

Yes.

[smarty]

You're lucky that we don't tax your spouse also.

[brent s]

sure do!

[ChunkyMonkey]

It's actually the worse of both worlds. High property taxes in NH and income tax in MA. If you lived in MA and work in NH, then you'd be sitting pretty.

[smarty]

Originally Posted by ChunkyMonkey

It's actually the worse of both worlds. High property taxes in NH and income tax in MA. If you lived in MA and work in NH, then you'd be sitting pretty.

Not sure if it is true...
1. MA still forces you to pay MA income tax working in NH. You have to pay the higher of two. Hence, the same either way.
2. Housing is more expensive in MA. In NH, rate may be higher but evaluation is lower. Hence, again... may be a wash.

The best of both world may be to work and live in NH. [No income tax and cheaper housing/rent]

[holden125]

Originally Posted by smarty

The best of both world may be to work and live in NH. [No income tax and cheaper housing/rent]

Only problem is you'd have to work and live in NH. No thanks!

[CaseyB]

Originally Posted by holden125

Only problem is you'd have to work and live in NH. No thanks!

Other than the colder weather, why would you say something like that? There's lots of nice places to live in New Hampshire, with an overall lower cost of living. Ask thousands of former residents of the Bay State.

[holden125]

Originally Posted by CaseyB

Other than the colder weather, why would you say something like that? There's lots of nice places to live in New Hampshire, with an overall lower cost of living. Ask thousands of former residents of the Bay State.

There are some very nice places in New Hampshire but personally I wouldn't want to live there. I prefer the diversity and the stimulation of the immediate Boston area.

I think my response was motivated in part by frustration with the frequent portrayal of NH as some kind of paradise simply because of low taxes. Mass. has higher taxes than NH but is pretty much in line with the national average. For the past couple of years I've been a lucky taxpayer in the City of New York, where the combined state and local income tax burden on my income is very close to twice what it would be in Massachuetts, and everything else is more expensive too. And even here I'm doing OK. Even now I'm paying less than when I had to pay taxes in Germany and France, and I made it through those years as well and found much in those countries' systems that I didn't mind paying for.

Ultimately if you want good schools and services you have to pay for them somehow and a lot of the towns in NH close to the border with good school districts have high property taxes as a result. But many NH towns offer fewer services and living there is more akin to "roughing it." Someone once said that Newton or Lexington is like staying in luxury hotel and rural NH is like staying in a campground. Closer to nature and much less expensive, but fewer amenities. One of the beauties of the American system is that different jurisdictions allow people to choose a good fit and if people want to go to New Hampshire that's fine.

Purely in terms of looking for the lowest tax rate, New Hampshire may be the best of all worlds, but there's simply more to the calculation than that. Personally, I wouldn't even want to live as far from the city as Woburn or Reading. And while there are thousands of former Mass. residents who have made the move to NH, there are plenty of people still in and near Boston who see it my way. All I'm saying is that I wouldn't up and move there simply to save a few percent in taxes.

[Valerie C]

Yup, if you live in NH, work in MA, you pay MA income tax. We are trying to figure out WHO our representative in MA is. How ironic that the very state in which the phrase "No taxation without representation" was uttered back in 1750 is now taxing non-residents without representation... As Smarty said earlier, I guess we should be glad that MA doesn't tax our entire family for having the audacity to work in the state of MA (j/k, sort of...)

May I politely say NO NO NO NO NO!!! Please don't move to NH if you're just interested in cheaper housing and no income tax. We have enough residents who moved here from other places, brought their voting/spending habits with them, and changed the southern/eastern part of the state to be filled with all the comforts that they enjoyed back wherever they came from. Some might consider parts of NH to be "camping", and guess what? The residents of those areas are fine with that We have no need compete with "The Center of the Universe". Come visit for a week or two, spend your $$, enjoy the sights and sounds of our wilderness and natural beauty. If you decide that you want to live a slower and simpler life, maybe, just maybe, New Hampshire is for you. And maybe not... And that's OK just do it for the RIGHT reason.

Originally Posted by smarty

The best of both world may be to work and live in NH. [No income tax and cheaper housing/rent]

Originally Posted by holden125

Only problem is you'd have to work and live in NH. No thanks!