Paging Mr. Galt; Mr. John Galt to the White Courtesy Phone please...
Looks like the state of Maryland is not doing quite so well.
From the
Wall Street Journal:
Millionaires Go Missing
Maryland's fleeced taxpayers fight back.
Here's a two-minute drill in soak-the-rich economics:
Maryland couldn't balance its budget last year, so the state tried to close the shortfall by fleecing the wealthy. Politicians in Annapolis created a millionaire tax bracket, raising the top marginal income-tax rate to 6.25%. And because cities such as Baltimore and Bethesda also impose income taxes, the state-local tax rate can go as high as 9.45%. Governor Martin O'Malley, a dedicated class warrior, declared that these richest 0.3% of filers were "willing and able to pay their fair share." The Baltimore Sun predicted the rich would "grin and bear it."
One year later, nobody's grinning. One-third of the millionaires have disappeared from Maryland tax rolls. In 2008 roughly 3,000 million-dollar income tax returns were filed by the end of April. This year there were 2,000, which the state comptroller's office concedes is a "substantial decline." On those missing returns, the government collects 6.25% of nothing. Instead of the state coffers gaining the extra $106 million the politicians predicted, millionaires paid $100 million less in taxes than they did last year -- even at higher rates.
Heh. You do not accumulate a million dollars by being stupid. Even if the ancestral family house is in Maryland, you move to New Hampshire as your primary residence and visit MD on weekends...
Posted by DaveH at May 26, 2009 11:31 AM