Taxes

Leave NY and go where? Alabama? Low tax states generally have lower salaries, so moving won't financially benefit you much. Plus you will need to have a car and all the expenses that come along with it.

Deliverance.

There's always Connecticut.

Let's think about it the other way: how much of your income would you have earned without the baseline services and infrastructure that society provides to you? (i.e., try to make your fortune in a place with no social infrastructure like Somalia; do you think you would make more than the 56% that you keep after taxes? If not, it seems like you are getting a good deal.)

right on cue. the usual suspects. realtime, consider yourself lucky and blessed and be sure not to miss those payments until someother host comes onto the bandwagon.

jordyn, really? i mean, really?

Fairtax.org

"There's always Connecticut."

Yes, move to Connecticut, where all of the money you save in taxes goes toward Metro North tickets and $4 a gallon gas.

"Leave NY and go where? Alabama? Low tax states generally have lower salaries, so moving won't financially benefit you much. Plus you will need to have a car and all the expenses that come along with it."

Which is why the level of income used to determine "rich" needs to calculated using cost of living. That person making 150K in Alabama is certainly "richer" than a person making 250K in NY.

Re "Baseline services"....I forgot to mention the 50K annually for NYU tuition. and my health care premium. Of course I am better here than in Somalia but really, if more of us will reach a breaking point, than this wonderful Tax base which enables us to have a non Somalia culture will disappear. (Needless to say, that I do not believe our garbage collection system is much different than 3rd world or that our police force is so polite for any segment of the population, or that our Health Care makes any sense). The bottom line- I am just fed up with the current dysfunctional system and do believe in raising the taxes on the "middle class" and bringing our Defense budget back to the level of the late 90's and invest better in our social infrastructure so we do not become another Somalia...

jordyn, you really lose credibility with statements like that. You really think that the only alternative to huge government deficits and debt, government borrowing 40% of everything it spends, and taxing 44% of the earnings of the country's biggest producers is . . . Somalia? You can't see an alternative of government that efficiently provides necessary services and infrastructure, and a basic safety net for those who can't provide for themselves, without a 44% tax burden on the most productive and massive debt?

Florida has no state income tax, but higher property taxes. Suffolk County has low property taxes and you don't pay city tax.

People who make between 150K and 600K from wages only get screwed compared to people making money from their own investments/partnerships/dividends. I don't think anyone should get 45% taken away when they still have student's loans. At the same time, it is ridiculous that capital gains tax stands at 15%. The richest Americans pay about 17% of their income in taxes, while realtime pays 44%. I don't think it's fair.

"I don't think anyone should get 45% taken away when they still have student's loans."

I don't think anyone should get 45% taken away, PERIOD.

LICcomm has a commical inability to distinguish between "most productive" and "highest paid".

Here's a cost of living calculator so that everyone can stop guessing about Alabama:

http://cgi.money.cnn.com/tools/costofliving/costofliving.html

That's fun. Asheville would cost me less than half.

OK so 250K in NYC = 105K in Birmingham AL

You couldn't pay me enough to live in Birmingham. Obviously, there are a lot of places way cheaper than New York, including both Birmingham and Somalia. If that's the right trade off for you, by all means move and stop whining about how expensive it is to live in the place you've chosen to settle down.

By the way, LICC--my point was that OP fails to take note of the benefits he reaps from society and looks only at what it is costing him. This is a silly perspective; we get a lot of benefits for our tax dollars. It doesn't mean that things couldn't be better, but that's a difficult and more nuanced discussion that just looking at a number and complaining about it without any cost/benefit analysis whatsoever.

"by all means move and stop whining about how expensive it is to live in the place you've chosen to settle down."

And while you're at it, please stop whining about how you "have" to send your kids to private school here, and how painful it is to pay $70K/year, and how you "feel" like lower middle class because between the private school tuition, the second mortgage in the Hamptons, the boat fees, the butler, and the handmaiden to hand-moisten your nails before your mani/pedi, there's just "no money" leftover!

But "rich" is a relative term. Those guys making 150K in Alabama are rich. They should be taxed accordingly.

They ARE taxed accordingly ... they live in Alabama.

At what level is it justified to pay 44% from total earnings for the benefit of living in USA? If you make 1 mill- is it fare or right to pay $440K? Do you really get the value from "NYC" or "society" of what you pay in direct and hidden taxes? It is not a matter of Albama or Somalia. I did not read a complaint about paying for the help,the butler or the h
Hamptons. (this are personal choices). I do not read the post as a complaint about feeling "middle class". I just read that this is not sustainable and will hurt all of us ("society") when the writer will get ot of the game. Yet we are all in favor of taxing the "rich".

Put another way, wouldn't you willingly pay a lot more in taxes at $150K to guzzle Manhattans rather than Alabama Slammas?

[What ever happened to Glamma?]

"They ARE taxed accordingly ... they live in Alabama."

In his own snarky way, Alan is right.

$150K is $150K. What you DO with your $150K ... or WHERE you spend it ... doesn't change your socio-economic status. Some *choose* to live in the most expensive city in the nation ... and choose to send their kids to private school ... forcing them to live in a one-bedroom walk-up in Harlem. Others *choose* to live in an expansive 6,000 square-foot loft (with free parking) in Downtown Birmingham for less money than the New Yorker's monthly ConEd bill.

It's all about choices.

They can afford it. How dare they have excess income. What do you want them to do, save it and then have to give half of it back when they die? Might as well get it now.

OP -- Congrats on making so much money. When I wrote the checks Sunday night, I reminded myself how lucky I am to be in that bracket. BTW, you could go to Baruch and get a great education for a lot less than $50K.

" Others *choose* to live in an expansive 6,000 square-foot loft (with free parking) in Downtown Birmingham for less money than the New Yorker's monthly ConEd bill."

Yes, brilliant idea for the government create incentives to earn less!

if you own a condo..does the bank that has your mortagge also handle youyr real estate taxes ? has anyone seen an "escrow" charge being added to your a mortgage payment by a bank ?

I haven't heard of too many people with a 44% effective tax rate. That's really high even for NYC. Typically if you make enough to fall into that tax bracket, a good chunk of your income comes in as capital gains from equity, dividends, or carried interest, depending on your profession, which is net taxed at 26% in NYC. If you can make the same amount of money elsewhere, maybe you should. Or start putting more of your capital at risk instead of hoarding it. That is the purpose of capitalism, entrusting the most successful people with allocating resources. If you're not fulfilling that role by investing your capital, then yes maybe we should be taking it back from you.

Also you say you are paying real estate taxes, which means you have a home, which means you are investing some of your capital. That's probably making 5% a year and when you sell it, the capital gains tax on it is very little, so you should be figuring that into your effective tax rate.

marco_m, with most mortgages the lender gives you the choice of whether to (1) pay RE taxes yourself or (2) pay the lender each month and have them pay the bi-annual bill. They prefer (2) as it better protects their interest.

For some loans (FHA, for example) you have no choice: (2) is required.

While mortgages have first lien on a property, taxes trump that, so lenders do not want to leave that to chance and risk having someone jumping in front of them. For that reason they will want you to escrow your taxes and pay them on your behalf. And if you don't pay your taxes, lenders usually continue paying to preserve their status.

How does the bank keep track of each properties RE taxes ?? Im in a coop and I know the mgt company handle it with maintenance. so for a condo how the heck does a lender keep track of that ???

is this a joke or just you?

It's all electronic. The lender pulls the amount for each account from the city, then pays in one lump sum along with a feed specifying how much should be applied to each account/borough-block-lot.