Last I heard a million = 1,000,000 not 200,000 Did I miss something, has the term millionaire been changed to someone who earns 200K annually. http://money.cnn.com/2010/11/02/news/economy/state_taxes_washington/index.htm This is why Florida is my primary residence, state taxes suck.
One of them things that irks me about this is Bill Gate's father. He talks about how his son will pay more in taxes and doesn't mind when in fact Bill Gates pays very little tax on income because he has very little income! Almost all his compensation comes from stock appreciation. He pays capital gains taxes on the sale of stock "if" he chooses to sell any. He pays little to no income tax. So no, this will not affect Bill Gates one bit and his father can stick it. I love how these rich people talk about the sacrifice they are making by them willing to pay more in taxes when in fact they pay zero taxes!!!!!!
Net worth vs. yearly income. It is assuming someone in that income category has a net worth of more than one million dollars. That also may be a faulty assumption.
In case you hadn't noticed if they don't screw you one way on taxes its another, property, sales, etc. I read Texas has 3 times higher than Colorado on property taxes. In Colorado income/corp. taxes are 4.63% which I think is reasonable. CA has low property taxes ( Prop. 13 ), and shitty schools, but high income taxes.
One problem there with your logic. The value of TX property is nothing. Home vales are dirt cheap and they tax at the rate that they do otherwise they wouldn't collect any money. A 200k home in TX is worth 600k in a Chicago suburb. I've done the math and the cost of living in TX is substantially cheaper then most other high tax states. Cost of food is dirt cheap, gas is dirt cheap, no state income taxes and even the cost of private schools are 1/3rd of what private schools cost in Chicago. Also sales taxes are about half of what they are in Chicago. So no, it's not all equal. The tax arbitrage game is alive and well.
from the article: But not all is copacetic in the tech-heavy state. Current Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer has donated $425,000 to opposition group "Defeat 1098," according to the Washington Public Disclosure Commission. And company co-founder Paul Allen has chipped in $100,000. Best thing Ballmer has done since he became the voice and face of MSFT.
Gotta love it when CEOs tell employees to 'tighten' their belts and take cuts for the good of the company (i.e. shareholders), and as an example they boldly announce they will only take 1 dollar as a salary for the year. All the while, they have a boatload of options worth millions that will appreciate far beyond any salary they would have taken, with a fraction of the tax they would have had under 'salaried' income.
But you are comparing apples and oranges here's why. I live in Southern Denver Metro where the avg home is 250k . Since I have checked in Round Rock, suburb of Austin property values are closer to 160-180k. In short, comparing Chicago to Texas is is not the same as Denver Metro to Texas, which IMO is a much fairer comparison. Here look for yourself and decide. Austin compares well to Chicago, its one of the more expensive cities in Texas http://www.bestplaces.net/city/defa...r_CO&ccity=Round_Rock_TX&p=0857630&op=4863500 http://www.bestplaces.net/city/defa...icago_IL&ccity=Austin_TX&p=1714000&op=4805000
The problem with those websites is that you can't make a true comparison based on "average" numbers. Look, without sounding like a racist, Chicago is very black(38% of cook county). If you look at Cook county and use "average" numbers Chicago can look very affordable. I live on the northside of Chicago. If you choose to live on the north shore or any desirable neighborhood in Chicago, it's expensive as hell. Sure the southside of Chicago or West Chicago or even the northwest burbs compare very favorably to Austin. But Austin, like most college towns, has far more favorable areas to live. While there are expensive areas in Austin and not so nice areas, Austin as a whole is very livable. Chicago is NOT. If you ever choose to move here and you have kids and a wife, you will be very careful where you choose to live. The most desirable areas here have insane property taxes, and very high housing costs. On top of all the other taxes that are sky high here including fuel taxes and sales taxes. Cook county has 3 million people. About 70% of that area you would NOT choose to live in. But using average numbers it could give you the impression that Cook County is actually a cheap place to live. I will say it again, pound for pound, dollar for dollar, Texas is very hard to beat. When you look at the quality of schools in good areas, the taxes, the property values, food costs, fuel costs, sales taxes and the crime rates.