Tax comparison between US States

[ruffdog]

Do you feel you got value for what you pay for in the form of taxes?

To be completely honest, I feel like a lot of other people get value for what I pay in the form of taxes. That discussion however, is inherently political, and is verboten here.

Yep, that is the real question. Are the taxes fair across the board, are the benefits fair, and is the tax money being spent on needs or on wants.

 

[RickB]

Yep, that is the real question. Are the taxes fair across the board, are the benefits fair, and is the tax money being spent on needs or on wants.

Wants and needs are subjective. That is the root of the disparity in tax burdens.

 

[duffer]

The missing link in the article is that "tax law" changes almost constantly. When I was in my 40's (now 69) there were 5 PAIR of states, adjacent to each other, where one state had no sales tax, and the adjacent state had no income tax. Today...there's only one set of states left like that.

Before we moved to the southeast for retirement, I looked long and hard at TX. The problem with TX is that their property taxes are absurd. And they have almost doubled in the last 10 years or so. And as we all know, property taxes never go down over time. If we were to "transplant" our house in IN to the Austin area, which is where we wanted to live, the property taxes would be $20,000 per year.

One of the posters above is correct. It's not just the state you live in, but the locale. County and city taxes can take alot of money from your disposable income. 1.5% on $100k is $1500 a year of addt'l taxes. Not sure about you guys, but I can put that $1500 to work a helluva lot better than the city/county gov't.

Taxes are an important factor in retirement, but so is quality of life, weather, medical access, entertainment, etc etc etc.

 

[wngsprd]

What was the error that you found for Virginia?

Kip. says "In Virginia, residents pay $858 in taxes per $100,000 of assessed home value."

In fact, there is NO STATE real estate tax in Virginia. Each county or independent city assesses its own R/E tax...So you could live in some rural counties and pay as low as $420 per $100K or in one of the highest areas, such as a DC suburb and pay $1,300. This tax pays for schools, police, parks, libraries, and garbage collection, etc. where available. Most counties tax is less that what Kiplinger says.

 

[wngsprd]

I bought a stockcar from a guy in Virginia a few years back. He was telling me how your license plates were priced by vehicle value. This seems terribly unfair to me. He said he won't own anything less than 10 years old. I'm sure many others in that state adopt the same practice. Seems the auto dealers would lobby against that. Ours tags are based on vehicle weight.

Not correct. Plates are priced by vehicle type and weight...2 classes for cars: $30 or $35...2 classes for pickups: $35 or $44. Electric cars are $88 since they don't pay gas taxes added in at the pump.

 

[ruffdog]

Not correct. Plates are priced by vehicle type and weight...2 classes for cars: $30 or $35...2 classes for pickups: $35 or $44. Electric cars are $88 since they don't pay gas taxes added in at the pump.

That's cheap compared to us.....$85 for a car and $100+ for pickups. That doesn't include the wheel tax that is becoming popular for municipalities now.

Wisconsin DMV Official Government Site - Vehicle license plates fees

 

[RalphVa]

The property taxes in Louisiana are only applied to new owners. Existing owners generally pay not much more than what the tax was when they bought. We found that out when we lived there. Our neighbors were paying A LOT lower taxes than we were. We complained and got our taxes reduced some but no where near what the neighbors were paying.

 

[Agvg]

Here I live you pay a lot of taxes but you get somthing in return, free healtcare, very low kindergarten fees, free scool and high education, parental leave for almost one year with full pay, basic pension and cheap caring homes etc so its not hard to defend taxes.

 

[BoylermanCT]

Tell you couple things.
State of Maine more den happy to register yer trailer or RV and mail you a NonResident plate for it. Lady in Sec State offce told me they got thousands of plates in Hawaii and best dey know there ain't no bridge. Said Maine loves selling plates to people not gonna wear der roads out.

CT closed the Maine registration loophole and we pay personal property tax on cars, trucks, trailers, campers, snowmobiles registered in other states but parked in CT. Tax on a new car can be $1-2 thousand each year depending on its value. And the tax rate varies by city. So the same car could be taxed at $300 or $1500 based on which town you live in. Plus you pay 6.35% sales tax when you buy it! They almost passed another 6.35% tax when you sell it! Needless to say, I will be leaving CT when I retire.

 

[ruffdog]

Here I live you pay a lot of taxes but you get somthing in return, free healtcare, very low kindergarten fees, free scool and high education, parental leave for almost one year with full pay, basic pension and cheap caring homes etc so its not hard to defend taxes.

Not bad when you get a good return on your investment.