Wealthy Americans Moving To The South Due To Taxation

I'm not thrilled at the prospect of Yankees moving South.  I would be more willing to entertain the idea, if they are willing to assimilate into the dominant culture.

From Newsmax:

3. Wealthy Moving South to Avoid Taxes




Wealthy Americans are increasingly moving South, not for the sun but for lower taxes.



“For years, wealthy retirees from high-tax states in the Northeast and Midwest have been streaming to sunny, low-tax Florida,” Hilary Johnson writes for Investment News. “That stream is now turning into a flood.”



In addition to Florida, states with no state income tax are Texas, Nevada, South Dakota, Washington, Wyoming, and Alaska, while Tennessee and New Hampshire tax only dividend and interest income.



“The move to no-tax states is absolutely big business,” said Thomas Handler, a partner at the law firm Handler Thayer LLP. “People are doing is all day long, and it’s ramping up.”



In New York, the marginal state individual income tax rate on residents earning more than $500,000 a year has gone from about 7 percent in 2009 to nearly 9 percent this year.



One wealthy New Yorker fleeing high taxes is Tom Golisano, co-owner of the Buffalo Sabres hockey team and three-time gubernatorial candidate in New York, who announced last year that he was leaving the Empire State for Florida.



Radio talk-show host Rush Limbaugh, angered by the tax hike in New York, vowed in March that he would sell his Manhattan penthouse and move his operations elsewhere. He already has a home in Florida.



“I'm going to look for an alternative studio somewhere outside New York, perhaps Texas — another no-income-tax state,” he said. His penthouse went under contract in July.



Florida’s population soared 16 percent from 2000 to 2009, after rising 23 percent in the 1990s. New York, on the other hand, saw a net migration of minus-698,000 from 2000 to 2008. That population shift has accelerated recently, however, with the Bush tax cuts set to expire at the end of the year and well-off individuals facing higher federal taxes.



But tax experts warn that wealthy individuals should plan carefully if they intend to buy a home in Florida while still maintaining a residence in the Northeast or Midwest.



“If you’re claiming Florida residency, you don’t want to have one fact that shows you are still tied to New York, such as not having changed your driver’s license, voter’s registration or mailing address for important documents,” attorney Gary Phillips, an attorney at Cole, Schotz, Meisel, Forman & Leonard PA and co-author of “On the Road to Florida: Coles’ Practical Guide to Changing Your Residence from New Jersey or New York,” told Investment News. “That would be the one thing auditors can focus on, and it hurts your case.”