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HIGH TAX RATES ARE DECIMATING STATE ECONOMIES AND LEADING TO A WEALTH EXODUS IN AMERICA

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file photo by Boyd Loving

November 6,2017
by Kevin Ryan

It’s a simple concept that has eluded many politicians and ideologues, especially on the left. When you raise taxes, people and businesses will leave, bringing with them those taxable incomes your government depends on. One look at the migration patterns within the United States verifies just that.
A book on the subject, How Money Walks, uses official statistics from the Census and the IRS to explore the subject. It found that, between 1995 and 2010:
• The nine states with no personal income taxes gained $146.2 billion in working wealth
• The nine states with the highest personal income tax rates lost $107.4 billion
• The 10 states with the lowest per capita state-local tax burdens gained $69.9 billion
• The 10 states with the highest per capita state-local tax burdens lost $139 billion
According to the authors, “The states that gained working wealth are growing and thriving. The states that lost working wealth lost their most precious cargo—their tax base—and the consequences are dire: stagnation, deterioration, an economic death spiral as they continue to raise taxes and lose people, businesses, and working wealth. The numbers don’t lie.”

Its website includes a fascinating interactive map that shows where people and their money moved to, on a state and even county basis, here: https://www.howmoneywalks.com/irs-tax-migration/
(Note: the interactive map doesn’t work on the Safari browser, so iOS users should view it on the Puffin app instead).
Another website by the authors includes a calculator that will tell you the tax implications of moving from your current state to a different one, here: https://www.savetaxesbymoving.com/
SOURCES: https://www.howmoneywalks.com