moving to Portsmouth, NH from California (Nashua, Hampton: sales, 2009, rent)

[jojoboulette]

My husband and I are seriously considering Portsmouth. We live in Oakland, CA currently and want to move to a smaller area with more green (we're in a very urban area in Oakland.)

Love the architecture in New England; most everything out here in CA is stucco crap. I'm from Ohio originally, so I don't think changing climates will be a problem. I actually miss the seasons quite a bit. CA is too generic in terms of weather for me.

We are self-employed and run a software development/web design firm. Wondering about getting contract work from the Boston area and how that would affect taxes - does anyone know if we would have to pay MA taxes if the work was procured from and completely done in NH, even if the client was in Boston?

Are there any areas within Portsmouth itself that are particularly desirable to live? From the listings I've seen on Craigslist, a lot of it looks really nice, lots of green with nice older homes.

Also, how are the schools in the Portsmouth area?

[GregW]

IIRC work contracted in Mass. is not subject to taxes in NH. Portsmouth is a very neat place. If you get a client in Boston and it requires a face to face take some time, rent a car and drive around Portsmouth. You will be fascinated. Some of the houses are nearly as old as the original Spanish hacienda’s in California.

[jojoboulette]

thanks for your reply!

further question on the taxes: so, you live in NH, you get contract work from a client in Boston (or somewhere near there in MA) -- you don't pay NH taxes, but do you pay MA taxes?

[buck naked]

a couple of companies in Nashua were sued by MA for having MA customers....


as the law stands currently, you are not obligated to pay MA taxes because you have MA customers that travel to NH.


http://www.masslive.com/news/index.s..._tire_sto.html

[dubthang]

Portsmouth is a very nice town. There aren't really any bad places to live. Some areas may be less desireable because they aren't very close to downtown. Portsmouth is big on independent business too. Look at property tax rates for Portsmouth and the surrounding towns. You may want to setup your business in Portsmouth, but actually live outside of it. The surrounding towns are nice also.

[NH2008]

I also moved to NH from the Bay Area. Portsmouth itself didn't have great schools when we were looking. New Castle, which is a small island connected by bridge to Portsmouth, is beautiful, quaint, and extremely expensive, but it has excellent schools. After middle school, though, students have to commute to the Portsmouth schools or go to private schools. The other local town with a highly rated elementary school is Hampton Falls, but that doesn't last all the way through. Exeter has a solid school system and is about 20 minutes away from Portsmouth. It's a cute town. The only local town that goes K-12 with consistently high ratings is in York, ME which is about 15 mins from Portsmouth but, obviously, in Maine.

I would ask your accountant about the contracting issue - would hate to give wrong info on that.

[dubthang]

The Oyster River school district (Durham, NH) is really good. That is where UNH is.

[jojoboulette]

@NH2008: thanks very much for the input... when did you relocate, if you don't mind me asking? do you know if the Portsmouth schools have improved since then? and what didn't you like about them?

[jojoboulette]

@ buck naked: Interesting article, thanks for posting. It says the case went to appeals and the hearing would be the next month, which would have been March. Heard anything else about it?

In our case, even if the law was changed, would most likely not apply to us. We provide services, primarily. And the tax I was inquiring about was actually income tax, not sales and use tax. But I appreciate the info, txs!

[NH2008]

Originally Posted by jojoboulette

@NH2008: thanks very much for the input... when did you relocate, if you don't mind me asking? do you know if the Portsmouth schools have improved since then? and what didn't you like about them?

We moved in late 2008 but were looking around for two years prior (my family lives in NH so we were around anyway.)

Looking at the stats, it does look like the high school's scores have improved, but the elementary schools and middle school don't fare as well. This is only one resource, but it's an easy to use one:

Greatschools.net Search: portsmouth

The NH Dept of Education also has stats online.