Traden4 - I'm guessing you know this, but in case you don't, any taxpayer can request an opinion letter from the IRS on how to treat a particular issue. There are certain legal safe-harbor-type effects to relying on an opinion letter, but the precise legal ramifications are beyond my knowledge. btw, if you think individual taxation is complicated, you should check out federal corporate, and worse, partnership taxation -- partnership tax is unbelievably complicated. A tax professor I know that had been a Congressional staff member, and had actually worked on the code, admitted that there are parts of subchapter K he can't understand, lol. The upside is that according to him, the partnership audit rate is very low mostly because there are so few IRS auditors that actually understand it themselves... my personal opinion on the flat tax is that we'll never see one because if you collected all the provisions into a single number, and that number accounted for the huge progressivity in the current system, the overall effective rate would be astronomical - much higher than projections I've heard. As for complexity, a great deal of the success of the code is that the ordinary person can't understand the law, even if they tried (they actually have to pay other people to help them pay the government!). Many see it as a black box calculation that they don't have enough time or desire to understand - it's easier to pay it and avoid the horror of an audit. The complexity, bureaucracy, and resulting fear assist in compliance - if you make it easy to understand, you also make it easier to object to.
great thread, I'm in Arkansas and paid over 5k in state taxes this quarter we have 6% state sales tax and then each county (all but one county) tacks on another few percent in sales tax to make it 8 or 9% cost of living list usually show Arkansas, Missouri, Oklahoma and Mississippi to be the lowest cost of living but I don't know if they take into account everything Looks like the following states have no income tax and are worth considering Florida - 6% sales tax Alaska - no sales tax Nevada - 6.5% sales tax South Dakota - 4% sales tax Texas - 6.25% sales tax Washington - 6.50% sales tax Wyoming - 4% sales tax This article favors Texas http://planning.yahoo.com/living2.html Did you know that last year 32.4% of all US filers paid no federal income tax. Yip it's true and that number has increased sharply the last ten years according to http://www.taxfoundation.org/publications/show/542.html As governments look for ways to increase revenues, sooner or later we will see a cashless society where there is no hard currency. There will still be dollars, but only on computer databases. This will create an incredible amount of additional revenue from professions that don't have to report all earnings.
Here's a link to taxes by state: http://www.retirementliving.com/RLtaxes.html While it's not in a table format, the info is very specific for each state. I don't know how up to date it is.
nice link, that page reminds me that some states don't tax groceries and medicine here in Arkansas we tax it ALL
FELIX take a look to Cape Coral in south florida (WEST) good beach, no state income taxes, clean and quite, good schools and very good houses Very very low crime rate (almost 0%) If You have a Boat the marina will cost you like 80-100 bucks a month (in miami is like 400 a month) is a great place to live If you have family But if you're single and want some good action forget about it. http://www.capecoralchamber.com/
Even though Florida doesn't have income taxes, doesn't it have an asset tax which is worse for traders ? For example, if you broke even for the year on your trading, you will still have to pay asset tax on your trading account.
In florida Taxes are Calculated like this Individual Filers, The first $250,000 of total taxable assets are exempt. Assets above $250,000 are taxed at $1 per thousand dollars of value. Joint Filers, The first $500,000 of total taxable assets are exempt. Assets above $500,000 are taxed at $1 per thousand dollars of value. Corporations, Partnerships and Estates - The first $250,000 of total taxable assets are exempt. Assets above $250,000 are taxed at $1 per thousand dollars of value. The most common types of taxable assets are Stocks Shares or units of a mutual fund, including money market funds Ownership interest in a limited liability company Interest in limited partnerships registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission Bonds Loans Notes Accounts receivable not arising from your normal course of trade or busi PD: Assets exempt from federal income tax are not necessarily exempt from Florida's intangible tax. What is Exempt????? well intangible property held in an individual retirement account (IRA) qualified under section 408 (IRA), s. 408a (Roth IRA), and s. 530 (Educational IRA), U.S.I.R.C., as amended. All intangible property held in a deferred compensation plan offered to government employees and is qualified under section 457, U.S.I.R.C., as amended. Interest in a limited partnership not registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Interest in a general partnership. Franchises. Notes and other obligations for payment, except bonds, to the extent secured by liens on real property located inside or outside the state. Accounts receivable that arise from, or are issued in connection with, a business' normal trade or business activity. A trust contributing 95 percent of its income to a federally exempt organization under section 501(c)3, I.R.C., as amended. and Companies registered under the Investment Company Act of 1940, s.80, a. 1052, are exempt from the intangible tax on the intangible property they own. This exemption does not include the shares or units issued by such funds.
Juneau actually doesn't get any colder in the winter than Chicago or Boston. And in Alaska, you get REVERSE taxes, i.e. the state pays you something like $1600 per year from oil revenues. The real downsides to living there are 1) high prices and 2) lack of transportation to other states (it is the only state capital you can't reach by road). Great if you want to live in a small town near natural beauty, hunting, fishing, etc. The only other city with good broadband in Alaska is Anchorage, which is indeed cold as hell. If you want a low-tax city with really kick-ass winters, Sioux Falls would be a good choice.