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California: Driving Away Success

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By Sergey Nivens @ Shutterstock.com

Is your state’s heavy taxation and regulation hurting your business? More people are feeling that way all the time, as I wrote in this piece on July 9, 2018.

Despite the allure of Silicon Valley, Hollywood and it’s natural beauty, California has succeeded in driving away a “small but statistically significant percentage of high-income residents after voters approved Proposition 30.”

If you don’t remember, Prop 30 was a ballot measure Californians approved in 2012 raising taxes on high income earners. The measure turned what had been a net-in migration of high income earners to California into what is now a net-out migration. Kathleen Pender explains in The San Francisco Chronicle:

For singles, Prop. 30 raised the rate by one percentage point on income between $250,000 and $300,000; by two points on income between $300,000 and $500,000; and by three points on income over $500,000. The income thresholds are doubled for married couples and indexed to inflation.

This brought California’s top rate, including the mental health tax, to 13.3 percent. (These increases were supposed to expire in 2019, but in 2016 voters extended them to 2030.)

The new working paper looked at taxpayers who were and were not subject to those rate hikes and found that in the two years before the increase (2011 and 2012), net in-migration for both groups “was positive and roughly constant.”

However, after 2012, net in-migration declined for those facing an effective tax increase of 0.5 percent or higher. The drop was largest for the group facing the highest effective tax increase, wrote the authors, who included Allen Prohofsky of the California Franchise Tax Board.

The fact is, money goes where it’s treated best, and so do the wealthy. With the elimination of the state and local tax deduction for federal income taxes, high earning California residents will be getting what amounts to another tax rate increase thanks to their state’s punitive tax system.

Earlier this year I wrote about John F. Early’s explanation of how people feel alienated when they work harder but don’t get ahead. That’s what’s happening to California’s wealthy. They’re keeping less than half of the last dollars they earn. How can they feel good about that?

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E.J. Smith - Your Survival Guy

E.J. Smith is Founder of YourSurvivalGuy.com, Managing Director at Richard C. Young & Co., Ltd., a Managing Editor of Richardcyoung.com, and Editor-in-Chief of Youngresearch.com. His focus at all times is on preparing clients and readers for “Times Like These.” E.J. graduated from Babson College in Wellesley, Massachusetts, with a B.S. in finance and investments. In 1995, E.J. began his investment career at Fidelity Investments in Boston before joining Richard C. Young & Co., Ltd. in 1998. E.J. has trained at Sig Sauer Academy in Epping, NH. His first drum set was a 5-piece Slingerland with Zildjians. He grew-up worshiping Neil Peart (RIP) of the band Rush, and loves the song Tom Sawyer—the name of his family’s boat, a Grady-White Canyon 306. He grew up in Mattapoisett, MA, an idyllic small town on the water near Cape Cod. He spends time in Newport, RI and Bartlett, NH—both as far away from Wall Street as one could mentally get. The Newport office is on a quiet, tree lined street not far from the harbor and the log cabin in Bartlett, NH, the “Live Free or Die” state, sits on the edge of the White Mountain National Forest. He enjoys spending time in Key West and Paris. Please get in touch with E.J. at ejsmith@yoursurvivalguy.com To sign up for my free monthly Survive & Thrive letter, click here.