which state is best to retire in tax-wise? (55, beach, community)
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My fiance and I are moving to Greenville, SC. Insanely cheap housing prices, but a fairly strong economy,
There is a fantastic park in downtown and several small towns nearby with stuff to do and pretty good hospitals as well.
The weather is pretty close to my California weather, a bit cooler over all, but I think they get 1/10 of an inch of snow a year, just enough to enjoy it and throw a few snowballs.
2012 VW Passat license renewal for 2014 was 768.00, that does not include the normal fees. Total was just under 900 dollars. Next year it will probably go down to about 600 or so. Total paid so far since new has been just under 3000 dollars.
2008 Corvette, 1134 dollars. Everything as I said is based on value. There is a deduction once you have over 150k miles on the vehicle. A coworker still pays over 150 dollars per year on a 2004 Camry with 208k miles. Total paid since new has been almost 8000 dollars.
Those are some pretty hefty taxes that no one ever talks about.
Yikes, so is this a property tax on your vehicle? How much are you paying in car insurance?
For us, we started with states with no income tax (same situation with NY Pensions that were not taxable in NY).
We wanted a college town for vibrancy.
We wanted a town with substantial medical facilities, also for diversity and vibrancy.
Environment was an important consideration. Four seasons. Some (little) snow. Outdoor activities...hiking, swimming, skiing...
BIG factor was humidity...I hate it.....so you have to stay on the west side of the mountains. NC, GA, SC...and of course FLA, are very hot and soakingly stuffy from May to September...can't stand that, so they didn't make the cut.
ALL states get their revenue...just from different sources. Take a look at the number of state employees per 10,000 population. NY is HUGE; Tennessee, for example, is a fraction of that. It means the demand for tax revenue is way lower. More efficient if you will. But, again, for example, Tennessee taxes home construction whereas NY gives you a capital improvement exclusion. 9 1/2% sales tax on a $200,000 home is a good chunk of change. Tennessee also taxes food and clothing--basically everything....it adds up.
You need to consider ALL of the nuances. You need to consider your desires, interests, and wishes. Once you have begun the fine tuning process, get in the car and start visiting places which MIGHT be of interest.
And lastly, a move is sold as being forever, but people make moves all the time and are not happy, for whatever reason. If that turns out to be the case, move on....don't stay where you are not happy.
Yes; I like Tennesse especially any where close to Smoky's. Enjoy it there when as was stationed there; nice people .
I do not pay income taxes. I do pay 'excise' tax on my vehicles, however I find them to be pretty low.
This is our fifth home, and we have never paid such low property taxes before.
To me, by migrating here, we found a great deal in terms of taxes.
But it does get cold, that frightens many people. We do have heating costs. We normally burn through 3 to 3 1/2 cords of firewood each winter. That can cost as much as $875/winter, just for heat.
Trying to calculate what your retirement taxes is not as easy as pulling out the tax rate books and comparing rates between states.
Two states have "similar" top income tax rates - 4.5% vs. 5.0%. Wow, not too different.
However, in state A, you hit the maximum rate around $350k in income, in state B, at 50,000.
Then, there is the question of what is recognized as income. Some states allow some retirement income to be non-taxable while others tax ALL federal income.
Then there are deductions (reductions of income) that can vary by taxing authority pretty substantially.
And there are tax credits (dollar for dollar reductions of taxes owed) in some states that are NOT available in others.
I have said from Day 1 on this subject, it pays to sit down for an hour with a CPA who does a lot of tax work in the state if taxes are a big issue to you. Taxes will be a big issue if you have been deferring a lot of income through the use of 401(k) or Traditional IRAs.
I am just beginning to learn all of the Arizona tax nuances.
Location: We_tside PNW (Columbia Gorge) / CO / SA TX / Thailand
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Quote:
Originally Posted by jlawrence01
Trying to calculate what your retirement taxes is not as easy as pulling out the tax rate books and comparing rates between states.
... Taxes will be a big issue if you have been deferring a lot of income through the use of 401(k) or Traditional IRAs.
I am just beginning to learn all of the Arizona tax nuances.
I so appreciate not having to prepare state income tax in my chosen US choices of domicile and investment.
Ah, yes... so much variation between states and how they tax retirees. My FIL moved to Oregon against my advice and it has cost him dearly. He just delivered the message he will be moving in with us here in WA as soon as his gold-digger new spouse croaks. The 2 min trip across the river will keep alot of his dough in his pocket. (100% of his Oregon state burden). Since Oregon is sales tax free, it is not really that attractive to those no longer 'accumulating' stuff.
For simplicity, I plan to use income tax free SD as domicile (one overnight stay is all it takes to establish). I will just need to be sure I never 'over-stay' in a tax hungry state. (usually 183 days / per yr)
Do be careful on how the state / country counts the 183 days. Some use a rolling yr, some use a calender yr. I recently bailed out of Thailand on day 181, so as not to trigger double taxation.
But I have been tracking weather for Greenville compared to the SF bay area (east bay where I am) and actually the humidity is not bad. In the summer months it can be quite a bit different (ours drops as SC raises), but in fall and spring it is pretty comparable. This past fall a few days were more humid here than Greenville was.
2012 VW Passat license renewal for 2014 was 768.00, that does not include the normal fees. Total was just under 900 dollars. Next year it will probably go down to about 600 or so. Total paid so far since new has been just under 3000 dollars.
2008 Corvette, 1134 dollars. Everything as I said is based on value. There is a deduction once you have over 150k miles on the vehicle. A coworker still pays over 150 dollars per year on a 2004 Camry with 208k miles. Total paid since new has been almost 8000 dollars.
Those are some pretty hefty taxes that no one ever talks about.
South Carolina is number 1 in fatalities, 5 in careless driving and 6 or 8 for drunk drivers according to the most recent insurance institute studies.
Yikes and holy smoke!!! That's worse than California and more than marginally worse. I wouldn't have guessed that for South Carolina. People often assume that California is a horror story with regard to taxes, and I keep saying that yes, although Calif. is a high-tax state, it simply isn't as bad as many people assume.
Thanks for taking the trouble to post the examples per my request - they really make your point in no uncertain terms.
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