Did a Maryland Tax Increase Cause Taxpayers to Flee the State?

An organization called ChangeMaryland has a new study that states that 31,000 individuals left the state from 2007 to 2010. ChangeMaryland believes that it’s the tax hikes in the state that have caused the exodus.

Maryland is a decidedly liberal (“blue”) state with relatively high taxes. The study states that the millionaire’s tax, which ran from 2007 to 2010, cost the state $1.7 billion in tax revenues: Individuals impacted by the tax fled to low-tax states (primarily Florida). As I noted last December, California lost over 720,000 taxpayers and $48 billion of AGI from 1993 to 2008 while the population of the state increased.

There is an obvious conclusion: Tax rates matter, and individuals will move to avoid higher taxes. I’m an example of that, and it appears that many former residents of Maryland are, too.

This entry was posted on Monday, July 9th, 2012 at 7:51 pm and is filed under California, Maryland. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

2 Responses to “Did a Maryland Tax Increase Cause Taxpayers to Flee the State?”

  1. Tax Roundup, 7/10/2012: A truly Rich expatriate; the tax effects of executive politics; just park it by the pole. « Roth & Company, P.C says:
    July 10, 2012 at 6:25 am

    […] we can still move within the country:  Did a Maryland Tax Increase Cause Taxpayers to Flee the State?  (Russ […]

  2. Steven J Fromm says:
    July 13, 2012 at 12:14 pm

    Great piece here. This is why Florida is so popular. In Philadelphia, the taxes are just killing development. They are attempting to lower them but Philly’s needs are almost overwhelming from the school system to services, etc. Tax collections have been horrible and they are more aggressive but these problems sometimes seem insurmountable.