There's A Reason Bill Gates And Jeff Bezos Both Call Washington State Home
http://www.businessinsider.com/washington-best-state-for-the-wealthy-taxes-2013-1
Why does the wealthiest man in America live in Washington?
The answer is in a report released this week by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy.
Washington’s tax system is the most disjointed in the nation, leaving rich residents — including Bill Gates, the country's richest — with more money in their pockets, and the poor with even less to scrape by on.
The wealthiest 1 percent in the state of Washington — who bring in an average income of $1.1 million — pay only 2.8 percent of their income toward state taxes. By comparison, that state's poorest 20 percent — earning an average income of $11,500 — shell out nearly 17 percent of their income to the government, according to the report.
In fact, Washington is one of nine states in the country without a personal income tax. Instead, it relies heavily on sales taxes, which often hit lower- and middle-income families the hardest, and property taxes.
Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/washington-best-state-for-the-wealthy-taxes-2013-1#ixzz2JeJhSuqc
= new reply since forum marked as read
one *pushing* a state income tax.
because, like all rich people, he can easily avoid it. he can avoid the sales tax too.
bezos, otoh, is actually an alien. a real alien.
Ten states — Washington, Florida, South Dakota, Illinois, Texas, Tennessee, Arizona, Pennsylvania,
Indiana, and Alabama— are particularly regressive. These “Terrible Ten” states ask their poorest residents
— those in the bottom 20 percent of the income scale — to pay up to six times as much of their income in
taxes as they ask the wealthy to pay. Middle-income families in these states pay up to three times as high a
share of their income as the wealthiest families 
• The main finding of this report is that virtually every state’s tax system is fundamentally unfair, taking a
much greater share of income from middle- and low-income families than from wealthy families. The
absence of a graduated personal income tax and the over reliance on consumption taxes
exacerbate this problem in many states.
http://www.itep.org/pdf/whopaysreport.pdf
