California - High Tax Rate?

[Dusseldorf]

Greetings. I am considering relocating to California as an online pro - mostly to get out of Illinois and partly to get nearby some land-based cardrooms (just for enjoyment). And then, of course, to become a movie star.

Can anyone tell me if I will experience a much higher tax rate if I am in California? My federal taxes are really the killer, the state taxes have not been bad. I just heard of California as being a "high tax state".

tHanks in adVance.

[FlFishOn]

Bend over, grab your ankles.

On your drive west quit in Nevada or Utah. Forget CA.

[Michael Davis]

8.5% sales tax. You are going to be shocked by the price of everything, especially rent.

-Michael

[BuckeyeMC]

You will be paying a lot for all of the social "programs" they have out there.

[jayboo]

I recently relocated to Ca. from mass. The taxes weren't a real issue for me as i'm not self employed. Sales tax is higher than mass though. The biggy i think is PROPERTY.
Avg house where im at in san diego is 600k [img]/images/graemlins/shocked.gif[/img] Condos aren't much better at 300 plus. I currently rent a 2 bedroom apt. about 15 minutes from the beach and i pay $950 per month which is about the same as mass so it's no biggy for me. Hope this helps. Jay
P.S. Can't beat the weather, plenty of sunshine and warmth almost year round [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]

[Guthrie]

High taxes, high fees, high cost of living. After the property tax revolt a few years ago they made up for it by raising all fees. A traffic ticket is $271. Parking ticket $20-$30. City of Los Angeles takes in over $100 million per year in parking tickets alone. State income tax is 7 or 8 percent. Sales tax is high. There's a boatload of taxes taken out of your paycheck, worse if you're self-employed. Be sure and check carefully with your insurance company before you get there--if you pick the wrong place to live your car insurance can be three or four times as high, sometimes literally across the street. If you have a wreck there's a 50% chance the other driver is uninsured. Rush hour is 20 hours a day, in both directions. Rent is obscene. But the weather is nice. And there's poker. If you want to be a movie star, move to Vancouver, B.C. That's where all Hollywood movies are made.

[BruinEric]

We have state income tax, which tops off around 9%. This is a "progressive rate," of course.

Random fees, etc. are relatively limited from what I've been told about folks in New England or eastern major cities.

Sales tax rates range from 7.75% to 8.25% in almost all counties. Each county has a different rate.

Property tax is maxed out at 1% of the home's assessed value, for which increases are capped at 2% per annum.

There are better places to measure cost of living than on a poker message board of course. Wages in CA are often much higher than in other parts of the country with a much lower cost of living.

If you live on the Southern California coast, you will expect that you aren't paying much if anything for heating or air conditioning because of the weather. If you live in the more arid desert inland areas you will be paying a meaningful sum for each.

If the amount of income you can make is the same no matter where in the USA you live, a move to CA is probably unwise from a financial standpoint.