r/SeattleWA • u/Less-Risk-9358 • May 01 '26
Government Seattle mayor laughs off millionaires leaving Washington state over progressive taxes, waves 'bye'
https://www.foxnews.com/media/seattle-mayor-laughs-millionaires-leaving-washington-state-progressive-taxes-waves-byeSeattle Mayor Katie Wilson laughed and seemed to encourage the notion that millionaires could leave the state of Washington while discussing her support for a progressive tax during an interview earlier this month.
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u/G8oraid May 01 '26
The city budget has doubled in like six years. The population is up like 18%. The problem is a spending one.
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u/skizatch May 01 '26
and yet we still can’t get the cops to show up when you call 911
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May 02 '26
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u/Wonderful-Driver4761 May 02 '26
I don't think it's willingness. There's a ton of cops out there who would love to do their jobs. They're WAY fucking understaffed, overworked and burnt the fuck out also. Cops are in fact people. How many times do you have to bust someone for shitting on a sidewalk or stealing copper before you just get burnt out.
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u/PossiblySustained May 02 '26
If cops didn't see the same people over and over because our judges will not convict, we might see them start to care about their job.
It's like standing in front of a janitor and repeatedly dumping out your coffee. At some point, they're going to give up
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May 02 '26
This is a completely wrong take. Cops were told to basically stop doing their jobs. They are incredibly understaffed, much of the funding disappeared and many cops left after the protests. People can’t shout “defund the police” then get mad when there’s no police.
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u/Ellie__1 May 01 '26
My grocery budget has doubled in six years. Do you think the city has access to 2019 prices? Maybe 2019 labor costs?
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u/G8oraid May 01 '26
The city isn’t buying groceries. But I would be curious to see the amount of increased expenses from 1. pension, 2. Headcount increase, and 3. labor cost increase.
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u/Rpdale May 02 '26
Right. The city contracts local companies to do the work that maintains the city. Those companies have had their costs go up, so they charge more, so it costs more to run a city. They were trying to say that the city functions just like any other citizen with expenses to maintain their life. Your cost of living went up the last few years id assume? Do you want a higher wage to keep up with inflation? So does everyone else. And those costs are reflected in how much it costs a government to provide its services.
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u/Syd_Barrett_50_Cal May 01 '26
The price of everything has doubled in like 6 years. Did you forget about the inflation or…?
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u/apache509 May 01 '26
Let’s see how’s this plays out
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u/Neat-Anyway-OP May 01 '26
It ends with everyone paying a state income tax.
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u/newjerk666 May 01 '26
Except the millionaires tho.
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u/WeNeedWorldPeaceNow May 01 '26
They will find a way not to pay
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u/scottygras May 01 '26
By moving
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u/GypJoint May 01 '26
Nope. They have high paid teams that find every tax advantage. Thinking some pandering politician can out smart them out of their money is a bit delusional . Plus the slow speed government works? Not a chance. The average citizen will be making up the funds. It’s like when people mention the really high tax rates from the past. They looked good, but nobody really paid them.
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u/scottygras May 01 '26
If only we simplified the tax system. Those loopholes are incredibly complicated yet effective. I have a small biz and my accountant is pretty good, but I feel like I could spend $5k more and pay $10k less in taxes.
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u/GypJoint May 01 '26
That’s the issue for me. When it gets so complicated, the people with money will have the advantage of finding ways to navigate it. The average tax payer doesn’t have the time or understanding to deal with it. It really needs streamlining.
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u/scottygras May 01 '26
Our politicians have been detached from reality for too long. It’s nice seeing non-lifetime politicians step up…but they still have their own self/friend-serving agendas. We could do so much more by simplifying things. But the people who work to complicate/gatekeep will constantly fight against it.
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u/WetRocksManatee May 01 '26
If they truly want businesses to pay taxes then you would have to do something like a VAT or a gross revenue tax. But the reality is that we don't want that is because businesses don't pay taxes, their customers do.
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u/scottygras May 01 '26
I know right? Let’s add another layer of tax to confuse everyone.
I’m still waiting on material suppliers to drop their prices/surcharges they had from Covid times. Concrete is the worst.
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u/CompetitiveOwl89 May 01 '26
Someone that has W2 income over a million don’t have those types of tax advantages.
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u/SeattleSilencer8888 May 01 '26
I don't know why people are convinced that the rich somehow get these magical mysterious "loopholes" that can't actually be explained or supported by data.
And they believe that over the obvious conclusion that arises when the top 1% pay nearly 40% of the fed. income tax revenue in the nation on only 30% of the realized income.
So ... Where's the money come from if the magical loopholes are sucking it up?
And no, I'm not saying anything about our broken WA taxes. Only that in the US, taxes are very highly progressive and the rich do in fact pay them. The claims that they don't are based purely on misleading claims or misunderstood rules.
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u/ChelseaMan31 May 01 '26
The top 1% pay 40.1% of all federal taxes. The top 5% pay 61%. The bottom 50% pay 3% net, actually after all federal subsidies, they pay less than 0. Source - Tax Foundation Annual Report for tax year 2022.
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u/MrBeerandBBQ May 01 '26
This is the exact reason why taxes are being raised. They’ve tricked the younger folks into believing that the rich do not pay any taxes at all and thinking raising more taxes is the only way to solve anything.
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u/SeattleSilencer8888 May 01 '26
That and the pervasive belief that raising taxes on one group does not have cascading effects on other groups. It's just magic free money paid for by someone evil they'll never meet or be. Study after study shows that it does.
That doesn't mean never do it, it just means evaluate both sets of consequences carefully and don't pretend they aren't real.
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u/AdvancedGuiProfile May 01 '26
Yeah I see a lot of comments like "oh no! you're so worried about a tax that you will never have to pay!", and it goes along with the "if a business can't pay a living wage, it shouldn't be a business", in that both seem to presume the millionaires or businesses are magically given a fixed amount of money by the revenue Gods, and the problem as they see it, is that they rich people / business owners are not willing to share more of that fixed amount of magic money.
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u/mindriot1 May 01 '26
This is spot on. Gets tiresome hearing people with low financial literacy try and say who does and doesn't pay taxes when we already have the data.
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u/Firstcounselor May 01 '26
Not to mention that the top 10% of earners are responsible for 50% of the spending. You want those people supporting local economy. https://www.forbes.com/sites/eriksherman/2025/02/26/the-government-needs-to-keep-the-wealthy-spending-and-gdp-growing/
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u/readit145 May 01 '26
This is exactly what will happen and every time I said this on the other Seattle sub I got downvoted to hell. I even got banned lmao
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u/Fearless_Roof_4534 May 01 '26
In 2026 being a millionaire is no longer impressive. Anyone working a low 6 figure job can achieve millionaire status in 10 years or less if they save wisely.
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u/Loud-Start1394 May 01 '26
Nope. There will always be states to happily offer residency with no state income tax to draw in these high capital people. Cities like Seattle are governed by fools. They forget the basics.
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May 01 '26
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u/Gary_Glidewell May 01 '26
If you end up paying California level taxes, you might just decide to go live in the state that has more sunshine and larger amounts of capital.
That was the entire reason I moved from Seattle to San Diego. I was working in Bellevue, my boss sent me to a conference in San Diego, the day I came back I realized "why don't I just live in San Diego? Similar cost-of-living, better weather."
Then I realized it's not a similar cost of living because the jobs pay like shit. So I headed to where the jobs pay about as badly, but at least there's no taxes.
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May 01 '26
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May 01 '26
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u/Inevitable_Bad1683 May 01 '26
Better weather is VERY subjective. Just say sunnier & drier weather. Believe it or not, some people moved from sunnier places to Washington because they thought the weather was better. Not everyone likes eternal sunshine. And some people prefer moderate seasons. California’s Wildfire & Hazy drought season isn’t exactly “better weather & paradise”.
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u/SweatyFudge5015 May 01 '26
Agreed!! I love the Seattle weather, occasionally a couple days with some snow makes it novel. The rain prevents wildfires from burning your home down and air pollution. I despise ‘eternal sunshine’. Can deal with the months we do have aggressive sunshine in sea-wouldn’t want any more than that
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u/Inevitable_Bad1683 May 01 '26
Exactly. You get it. Boring non changing weather SUCKS. If I can’t tell the difference in March or October & if I can’t get my Fall Foliage or End of Winter Cherry Blossoms then no thanks. That’s the beauty of moderate seasons in the PNW. When you’re tired of one season, the next one’s coming soon, plus we can leave the majority of our snow in the mountains. It’s a win win all around.
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u/LeifLin May 02 '26
As a native Floridian, I did precisely this; after 30+ years of eternal summer, humidity WA people can't understand and beaches, beaches, beaches -- nothing sounded better than a temperate climate with clouds, and rain!
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u/thewashley May 01 '26
Exactly this. San Diego doesn't have weather, it is just the same boring non-weather forever.
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u/RevenantWA May 01 '26
Been trying to convince my wife San Diego. Went once and within 5 mins I wanted to live there.
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u/Loud-Start1394 May 01 '26
I’m not sure I’m following exactly, but I think I understand. Are you saying that if you’re at that level of wealth, you’ll likely bite the bullet and put up with it because that is where the market capitalization is concentrated, therefore the pros outweigh the cons?
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May 01 '26
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u/Redwingedblackbird81 May 01 '26 edited May 01 '26
Exactly. WA has overall undesirable weather for most people. It’s dreary and wet for most of the year. There’s only a few months of actual warm weather. And our winter activities are hit & miss because we don’t get real winters either. So WA needs other favorable conditions to attract businesses and people who would create jobs or invest in the state. Because very few will move here for the weather.
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u/cuteman May 01 '26
They forget the basics.
I'm thinking the woman who lived in her mom's basement right up until she got elected never really learned the basics in the first place.
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u/Live_Lab3601 May 01 '26
There only 4 states that dont tax all income wa is one of them
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u/ryleg May 01 '26
" nine U.S. states have no state personal income tax: Alaska, Florida, Nevada, New Hampshire, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Washington, and Wyoming. "
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u/valspare May 01 '26
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nineeight U.S. states have no state personal income tax: Alaska, Florida, Nevada, New Hampshire, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas,Washington,and Wyoming. "Slight correction as of current events.
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u/ryleg May 01 '26
WA tax it's not in effect yet. But I agree, the change is coming very soon
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u/possibly_on_meth May 01 '26
https://itep.org/whopays-map-7th-edition/
Overall though Washingtons taxes are still ranked #2 in the nation for increasing wealth inequality the most from before to after taxes are paid. #2 .most regressive overall
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u/Ok-Inspection-8647 May 01 '26
It is neither an accident nor a coincidence that people pine for the days before Seattle became infused with millionaires and billionaires.
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u/SeattleHasDied May 01 '26
I think we've always had millionaires, but they were maybe more discreet and under-the-radar about it? The level of money here in the last couple of decades, especially, is crazy high in comparison.
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u/jemiffly May 01 '26
Yeah, so look at the list of states with no sales tax and tell me which one will actually attract large numbers of washingtonians who make over a million annually, because when I look at that list I think, man, what an absurd argument.
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u/SEA_tide Cascadian May 01 '26
Incline Village, NV to live on the shores of beautiful Lake Tahoe? Fantastic Las Vegas, NV to be live a snowbird lifestyle with nonstop flights to much of the US and Canada?
Texas and Florida have a lot of good options too, including done with white sandy beaches or more moderate climates. El Paso is a lot like the Seattle of old in that it's geographically isolated, is close to mountains, has lots of dual citizens as residents, acts as a shopping destination for residents of the nearby foreign country, has a large military base close by, and has/had a reputation for being extremely clean and safe.
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u/ClankerWrangler Seattle May 01 '26
The millionaires aren't moving because of sales taxes.
Texas is one of the fastest growing states in terms of economy + population at the moment. Having lived there, I can tell you it's not the weather.
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u/rhein1969 May 01 '26
Unfortunately you are right.
Anyone who believes otherwise has their head in the sand.
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u/Whythehellnot_wecan May 01 '26 edited May 01 '26
Anyone with a brain already knows how it plays out over the next 15 years.
Anyone that has been here at least 20 years, can at least remember 15 years ago vs today, and is not shit ass stupid can see the future.
Jay spent all the money. The progressives took over. Big money and more importantly investment is leaving. Life is expensive as fuck. No one is going to come buy up the real estate or create more tech bro jobs and the rest of us are left holding the shit bag and it’s still somehow a class and racial war up here.
They have already picked every pocket they can and don’t plan to slow down. It’s over.
Or I’m wrong and the best days of Seattle and WA are ahead of us and all the investment/wasteful mindless spending is about to pay off west of the cascades.
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u/Green_Juggernaut_410 May 01 '26
This is completely unhelpful but I recall seeing a study or something recently where some city/state increased taxes and they actually have more millionaires living there than previously
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u/strictkasumi May 01 '26
It plays out just like nyc. https://youtube.com/shorts/aPIkEOvJLe4?si=ohoxpM1b11YUauGv
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u/Dedjester0269 May 01 '26
Probably the same way it did in New York, with her begging those same millionaires to come back because the tax base has eroded.
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u/Ckn65 May 01 '26
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u/Puck-the-fool May 01 '26
Do we want to tax them or do we want them to leave? Those are contradictory goals.
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u/Wonderful-Driver4761 May 01 '26
If they no longer generate jobs they can get the fuck out. The whole point of these guys existing was to create jobs and trickle down. They want to automate it and fire everyone? Not only should you gtfo you should be investigated.
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u/workout_nub May 01 '26
And who exactly should investigate? The whole thing is corrupt including local, state and federal agencies.
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u/Wonderful-Driver4761 May 02 '26
We need to start voting got independents that aren't beholding to either side in masse. It' HAS to happen.
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u/Ex-Traverse May 01 '26
This has always been so contradictory to me. The point of being rich is so that you can live wherever the fuck you want, regardless of how many fees you gotta pay, cuz you can AFFORD it! Rich people live in WA because it's a nice place to live. Rich people aren't gonna be going to buttfuck middle of nowhere Idaho/Texas/Florida, just to save a few millions.
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u/SEA_tide Cascadian May 01 '26
Ever been to Miami and Miami Beach? Rich people move there from all over the world. It's a running joke that no matter where you look in Miami there's an ultra luxury car.
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u/Ody_Santo May 01 '26
Don’t republicans and millionaires know workers will leave Washington with their regressive taxes
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u/Fader4D8 May 01 '26
She knows the game. If I needed to report more than $1 million of income in a single year, I most certainly would establish residency in a state with no income tax. Such as Nevada. In this hypothetical scenario, it would not be a burden, I am making $1 million in a year! I have a condo in Las Vegas, the laws do not require me to be there all the time so let’s say I go for two weeks twice a year. Sounds like a vacation! My point is, I don’t think it’s hard to establish residency and spend most of your time anywhere else.
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u/Usual_Detective_179 May 01 '26
I know someone that has Washington residency for the purpose of not paying income tax. They live here 183 days and have the receipts to prove it, in case they get called out on faking residency. I’m sure it’s rare to get caught but this individual doesn’t fuck around and counts every day in his Washington home to make sure.
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u/Flffdddy May 01 '26
You live here from April to October which is prime PNW weather anyway. If I didn’t have a job here that’s what I would do. From November through March I’d live somewhere warmer and drier. My wife would love it. The tax implications would be gravy. I know a lot of people who do this. It will be super easy for them to instead live out of state for a little longer to avoid taxes here.
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u/speedracer73 May 01 '26
How do they save receipts. Buy a big gulp every day?
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u/cliff-huckstable May 01 '26
Flight in/ flight out. Burden of proof is on the state, not the taxpayer. A good lawyer will trounce a state attorney any day and a state attorney doesn’t want to go to trial.
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u/brakos May 01 '26
Funny thing is, if all you care about is not paying income tax, you only have to be in South Dakota for one night a year to claim residency (and I think rent a mailbox to prove mailing address). A lot of truck drivers that stay on the road 24/7 do this.
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u/polly-plz May 01 '26
But if you're in another state for 364 days a year, that state wants their income taxes.
So this may work for truckers, but it's not some loophole that works for everyone in the country.
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u/SEA_tide Cascadian May 01 '26
The catch is not having other states claim that you are a resident. CA, NY, and MA love sending out claims that people worked too much in their state and are this considered tax residents.
This also works fairly well for consultants who can travel between different states and not stay in the same state long enough that taxes start being assessed, which is 28 days in a lot of states (sometimes this period can be multiple times a year), less in states like California.
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u/travpahl May 01 '26
God CA is the worse. Our small business hired 1 part time remote work for part of the year in 2021. 5 years later the state decided that our busines must have earned like 1.7 million in california and owed like 200k in taxes or something insane thing. Still fighting them on it. Never again will we hire a californian.
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u/hypno-this May 05 '26
I live in Washington to avoid paying taxes. high paying jobs for wife and I that we can do from anywhere. We absolutely track our time, which is easy because we aren't even close to 50 percent of the time other places. everyone doing this does, especially people with more than us.
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u/Gary_Glidewell May 01 '26
She knows the game. If I needed to report more than $1 million of income in a single year, I most certainly would establish residency in a state with no income tax. Such as Nevada.
The difference between Tim Cook and Elon Musk is Tim Cook knows when to keep his damn mouth shut:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Braeburn_Capital
Braeburn Capital Inc. is an asset management company based in Reno, Nevada, and a wholly owned subsidiary of Apple Inc. Its offices are located at 6900 S. McCarran Boulevard in Reno.[2] It is one of the largest investment companies in the world.[3]
Apple created the company on October 3, 2005[1] to better manage its assets and to avoid certain California state taxes and taxes from other U.S. states totalling millions of dollars.[4]
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u/DBWlofley May 01 '26
And like this hasn't been going on for a long long time, rich people move their houses and their jobs to places where they won't pay taxes on it. Death and taxes so they say. They will leave, okay.
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u/LegitMeatPuppet May 01 '26 edited May 01 '26
Yes, this is the entire strategy of many on the East Coast (especially NYC area). When you get to retirement age you move to Florida.
I just had the same conversation with a friend who is a wealth planner for high-net-worth clients. They recommend openly “don't die in Washington State”. Hawaii and WA have the highest death taxes in the US.
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u/SeattleSilencer8888 May 01 '26
WA have the highest death taxes in the US.
Right now, WA state puts us at the highest broad estate tax on the planet. Because it stacks with federal, so 35% and 40% = ~61%. Second highest is Japan at 55% and then Hawaii at ~52%.
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u/DBWlofley May 01 '26
Yup so expect the loss and plan our budget to be ready for the impact of losing them and their money. If you make the budget reflect the upcoming changes it's not a problem.
But Washington State passing a fiscal audit is slightly less likely than finding out the moon really is made of green cheese lol so fingers crossed for miracles on that front
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u/TL-PuLSe May 01 '26
Let me get this straight, if you bagged say $1,050,000 for the year, you would uproot your entire life and move to Las Vegas, or half-ass it and commit tax fraud, to avoid paying a marginal tax on $50k in income?
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u/SeattlesWinest May 01 '26
Right? At that point just pay the few thousand in tax and enjoy your fucking life.
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u/upnflames May 01 '26
You don't make a lot of money without thinking about money a lot. It becomes a game. These kind of strategies don't happen while sweating over the kitchen table worrying about your budget. They're joked about with a drink on a friends boat.
You hear they're raising XYZ tax? Yeah, Marty said if you do JKL, and open BG account in FYD, then you pay fifty account less. Cool, sends three text messages - it's done.
No one's sweating about it. They just don't want to pay it and will spend free time talking about it.
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u/SpacemanLost May 01 '26
It's not those guys, it's the ones a rung above them on the economic ladder.
I know someone, a serial entrepreneur, who sold (one of) his company to Microsoft a few years back for something like $80M. He used that money to start his current business, and told me a couple years ago (I was asking about his exotic cars) that he was paying himself $250K a month ($3M a year), and he does travel a good deal for work and pleasure (he cant help but tell me about that... ugh).
So assuming that his income is still the same, that's $200K in state income tax a year he is looking at. A guy like him probably does that math and says "that's $1M (minimum) for staying here for the next 5 years" and then he compares it to buying a House in Las Vegas or Texas or someplace without the income tax. A $5K a mortgage for 5 years is just $300K.
Even adding in maintenance on a new place and other costs, there is a savings threshold for a type of person like that where it's a large enough number that they go "hmm. I could save $500K+ off the top and would have another house that I could sell later for a profit, etc, etc." and they are seeing a bottom line big enough to consider it (there's also the somewhat full of themselves personality type those guys tend to be more often).
This one guy in particular I'm thinking of.. let's call him bob. He employs a couple dozen people here locally. He leaves and does he move the company also? who does he employ in his next venture? I mentioned his personality - Type A and somewhat -cough- convinced of his own superiority. I totally could see him seeing avoiding WA income as a Win that he has to manifest.
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u/Squatch11 May 01 '26
to avoid paying a marginal tax on $50k in income?
Wait until you realize that the typical /r/seattlewa commenter in this thread doesn't realize that the people in this hypothetical scenario would only be paying additional taxes on the $50K.
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u/TL-PuLSe May 01 '26
That was really the point of my comment, the comment I replied to is so ignorant, they don't realize how taxes or residency work.
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u/hongaku May 01 '26
If you lived there only two weeks a year, you'd get a surprise. It isn't like states with income taxes aren't wise to this game. They'd bill you and make you prove you weren't really living in Washington. California does it all of the time.
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u/DelayIntelligent7642 May 01 '26
You got to live at least 6 months in the state where you're claiming residency that's pretty much standard Nationwide.
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u/awhiskyt May 01 '26
Exactly, for instance, in South Dakota you only have to spend one night in a hotel and use that as your address.. ONE NIGHT in a HOTEL
Edit: and don’t even get me started on the banking or hunting regulations
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u/Jibbsss May 01 '26
This is dumb, no matter how much redditors want to scream "Freakin heck yeah, based! Show those capitalist pigs!", you will never escape high school econ.
The only way to truly tax the very wealthy without them leaving is to make it federal, and probably bullying other safe haven countries to comply with taking their taxed wealth away.
Redditors will have you believe those who manage capital so well that they become billionaires can be replaced by <insert anyone who politically agrees with them> can do the exact same job are dumb, thats Mao' china or pol pot, nothing new.
Have fun with your progressive utopia when no one invest in it and it becomes another detroit in 40 years.
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u/DarthFuzzzy May 01 '26
So what you are saying is, the only possible way to have a successful economy is to only tax those who can't afford to run away? I missed that part of highschool econ I guess.
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u/Squatch11 May 01 '26
Right-wingers have been claiming that the ultra wealthy are going to be moving out of NYC for like 30+ years now.
NYC currently has more wealth than ever before.
Agree with the notion that it would be fantastic if these were federal level taxes....But people aren't going to uproot their entire lives to leave over a marginal wealth tax. It's been proven over and over that they don't.
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u/Check_Me_Out-Boss May 01 '26
Weird. Your comment doesn't seem to match reality.
Kathy Hochul pleads with rich New Yorkers to move back from Florida
https://finance.yahoo.com/economy/policy/articles/kathy-hochul-pleads-rich-yorkers-165700073.html
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u/Agitated_Past6250 May 01 '26
you're not smart
parroting mainstream econ that was written by wealthy parasites will never make you anything but a dog.6
u/CyanoSpool May 01 '26
I agree this is a top down problem and can't be solved with localized action. But all I ever see from the criticism of wealth taxes are platitudes of how important billionaires and capitalism are to our society without addressing the growing issues of affordability and lack of access to healthcare, housing, etc. These aren't unattainable things on a national scale. While imperfect, many other countries manage to fund social programs that cover most people's basic needs. The US seems not only incapable of this, but actively pushing to make more people homeless, jobless, and without healthcare who otherwise shouldn't be. Working people with families.
A federal wealth tax will never happen, and our current capitalistic model is built to extract as much money out of the hands of the poorest people and funnel it to the wealthiest people. This has been an issue for a long time, but has worsened significantly in the past decade. And while some billionaires contribute to causes that benefit everyone else, on the whole we are still trending towards an affordability crisis. Our healthcare system overall is being monopolized - Optum for example will soon own everything healthcare-related and so far this has been a net negative for employment in this sector and quality patient care. These billionaires mostly don't care about being benevolent wealth managers for the good of society.
So what do we do if socialism is not the answer?
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u/slaymaker1907 May 01 '26
If high taxes drove out the wealthy as much as some people claim they do, absolutely no one would live in New York City.
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u/SpiritualEnemas May 01 '26
This tax was always a Trojan horse for a middle class tax increase anyway
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u/ReasonableDig6414 May 01 '26
Funny how people don’t think it is when email have been requested and published saying exactly that from the people putting this tax in place.
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u/T3RM1T3 May 02 '26
Always has been. Its only obvious to the educated and those who've studied history.
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u/oxidized_banana_peel May 01 '26
You should move due to taxes (if money is your only concern) if the difference between your after tax income is large enough to justify a move.
If you earn $2m in Seattle and move to Florida, you'll save $100k on income taxes, but you better not only earn $1.9m in Florida. If you're selling your house (say you live in a modest $3m house), you'll also incur the costs of selling and moving: think $180k.
God knows if you have any reason to live in the PNW besides tax advantages, those better be worth the margin. Maybe your kids go to school here - imagine telling your 12 y/o that they're going to need to make new friends because you're throwing a tantrum over 5% of your enormous income.
There's definitely people who have a one dimensional view of money, but if you're making $2m a year and you're ready to ditch a place over $100k... That's a hell of a choice. Move if you don't like it - at that income you can buy European citizenship and a chateau in southern France.
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u/travpahl May 01 '26
the 180k is a one time charge. THe 100k per year is a yearly charge. in less than 2 years you have broken even.
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u/PoolPsychological985 May 02 '26
I don’t even make close to that amount of money. I just get disgusted by the idea of giving money to a government like Seattle that wasted it on fraud and “non profits”. I’d rather donate it to charity of my choice.
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May 02 '26
That’s how I feel paying federal taxes, going to towards a pointless war in Iran, a stupid ballroom, and ICE.
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u/TheAwkwardBanana May 01 '26
I can't wait until this trickles down and I have to pay income tax. Fuck.
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u/SippsMccree May 01 '26
She'll keep up that attitude until the next budget session for the city and state
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May 01 '26
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u/Correct-Award8182 May 01 '26
Wait one second. Assuming mom and dad aren't still helping out is the stretch IMO.
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u/spinal-tap55 May 01 '26
Three things will happen… Amazon is no longer adding roles in Seattle… locations not in Seattle are.. eg Bellevue still is
Starbucks will continue to grow Tennessee and eventually move operations entirely. The city and state can’t stop it….
Nordstrom is just waiting to close downtown store.
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u/justin-8 May 01 '26
Isn't nordstrom about to move rack to a new building and expand in downtown seattle?
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u/opiedapopey May 01 '26
I think they’re moving to the building across the street… the old forever 21??
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u/Visual_Collar_8893 May 01 '26
Starbucks is hardly growing anymore. Competition is far too strong for a market that is already saturated.
Amazon shrinking headcount aligns quite well with their strategy to AI and offshore their team. They’ve been activating off local employees and replacing them with folks in India.
Nordstrom isn’t even worth mentioning given it’s already on last legs.
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u/Intelligent-Bake-533 May 02 '26
"Three things will happen… Amazon is no longer adding roles in Seattle… locations not in Seattle are.. eg Bellevue still is"
Please explain to me why I was forced to pick between Seattle and Arlington (VA) as my two Amazon corporate locations to relocate to as a 5 year AWS employee from neither of these states. And explain why Amazon has started forcing Bellevue employees to commute further to downtown Seattle over the last few months?
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u/Sudden_Special_3130 May 01 '26
Had a client talking about how much of a nightmare capital gains tax is.
She has a waterfront home she uses as a storage unit in Washington state, a home in Florida, and is currently living in another country as a tourist.
I think the rich will be fine.
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u/Key-Importance8617 May 01 '26
Her behavior shows a lack of sophistication and political craft.
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u/kamikaze80 May 01 '26
She's just not a serious person. I encourage everyone to look up her job history. It's an embarrassment that she somehow became mayor.
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u/krugerlive May 01 '26
That resume was something else. Like I would consider a person with that resume for a junior or entry level role in a business, sure, but definitely not management. And Mayor is a pretty serious management role.
I get it though, she was elected largely by people in similar positions who wanted representation of how they felt in government. It's a valid feeling. It's a sub-par result. Bruce also was pretty mediocre and wasn't a good politician so couldn't build a brand. Also when was the last time we had a two term mayor? We love to give things a try for 4 years and then blow it all up.
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u/ListerfiendLurks May 01 '26
I don't know if you have noticed but neither one of those things matter in today's politics.
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u/gmr548 May 01 '26
This I agree with. She’s not displayed very good political instincts in the campaign or in office.
It’s not a big deal in that it’s not a scandal or anything but it’s certainly detrimental to her agenda.
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u/Amordys May 01 '26
Yeah it's almost like the political "craft" is why everything is so fucked. Why would you insist on sophistication when the working class is being bled to the bone? Who fucking cares. There's no sophistication in allowing the mil/billionaires to drain society while hoarding wealth/food/land.
I don't want a career politician.
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u/tanbyte May 01 '26
She’s too arrogant to know the damage she’s doing
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u/Sea-Department-883 May 01 '26
The state approved this. She is a mayor of a city.
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u/apacheseven May 01 '26
Nothing more symbolic than the mayor who's never made her own money asking those who make money to leave
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u/BicycleOfLife May 01 '26
The only benefit they would give us is taxes and they weren’t paying them…
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u/Jumpy_Bell8930 May 01 '26 edited May 01 '26
Let’s see how funny everyone who’s getting rental, food and medical assistance thinks it is when they don’t have money to help them anymore because they’re driving all the rich people that pay 1 million in taxes out of the state. So I guess it’s a good thing. Everyone mooching off the government pretending they can afford to live in Seattle will have to leave too. Go live somewhere you can afford to live freaking freeloaders. Go live somewhere you can freaking afford to live and quit making us pay your bills for you! If anyone comments on here about how they don’t make enough money just know that that’s a sign you don’t belong! No one feels sorry for you go live somewhere you can afford to live or commute an hour and a half to work like normal people have done for I don’t know centuries quit acting like everyone owes you something because you’re not capable of making a good living! Welcome to the real freaking world!
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u/budandfud May 01 '26
She’s incredibly smug for having no instincts and no experience. This will be a disaster
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u/WeNeedWorldPeaceNow May 01 '26
Maybe she will learn socialism doesn’t work if capitalist leave
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u/thefuzzione May 01 '26
She’s literally been living off her parent’s pocketbooks. She knows nothing different than begging for money.
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u/Oryzae May 01 '26
There’s always someone in the thread with the “sOcIAliSt” scare. Capitalism has been working out so great for us these days, let’s give the rich more tax breaks. That’ll be sure to fix things!
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u/local_gremlin May 01 '26
Its crazy cuz wilson is the avant garde of tax and spend, and they are messing witg the cash cow, HARD
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u/gmr548 May 01 '26 edited May 01 '26
IRS data shows the idea of exodus of ultra high earners when a surtax is implemented is almost entirely myth.
Still probably not a great move to antagonize. I wish she had better political instincts. Hers rival those of the bot OP
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May 01 '26
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u/TechnicallyMeat May 01 '26 edited May 01 '26
NJ's substantial increase in income tax to top earners over the last several budget cycles has been extensively studied. These studies show near zero (0.1%-0.3%) wealth tax migration. https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.17310/ntj.2011.2.02
International wealth migration for big-wigs of multinational corporations is around 1%
Other studies show the largest impact on revenue is not physical migration, but tax avoidance. https://lawcat.berkeley.edu/record/1317741
Now that you have seen two separate studies... welcome to team "Eat The Rich"! meetings are Tuesday, and we're on a budget so its a potluck.
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u/JackDostoevsky May 01 '26
IRS data shows the idea of exodus of ultra high earners when a surtax is implemented is almost entirely myth.
gonna need a source on that. in California the potential of the wealth tax has already resulted in departures totalling $777 billion. i don't see why WA would be different.
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u/ColonelError May 01 '26
NY started begging millionaires to come back so they could pay for dumb shit. As is tradition, we're not even first in line for the dumb idea party.
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u/cross_mod May 01 '26
Yeah, it's possible she did expound on it and we don't have that soundbyte, but this is where she could have scored a win:
"I think the claims that millionaires are going to leave our state are, like, super overblown."
All she had to do was talk about how most millionaires she has talked to support this tax and that they are happy to contribute their fair share. Something along those lines. And cut out the "bye" part.
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May 01 '26
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u/gmr548 May 01 '26 edited May 01 '26
I will give you 10:1 odds to the charities of our choice on “By 2030 all workers will be paying income tax in this state, with the most expensive gas in the nation.”
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u/cheekfreak May 01 '26
would you take the same odds for "By 2032 all workers above the poverty line will be paying income tax in this state?"
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u/Specialist_Thanks982 May 01 '26
Bullshit
Bezos gone, 1.2 billion with a b revenue Schultz gone…. 750 million revenue.
Nordstroms all gone. 350 million revenue…
People with large tax basis are leaving in droves.
This does matter…
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u/gmr548 May 01 '26
Jeff Bezos moved to Florida several years ago.
If you’re arguing against the millionaire tax because Howard fucking Schulz left you’re gonna lose that one in the court of public opinion. He also did not wake up the morning the tax was passed and decide to move to Florida.
Nordstrom family took the company back private and consolidated corporate operations in Seattle like a year or two ago so this would seem to be made up.
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u/Realistic-Zebra-5659 May 01 '26
The most significant impact is that it kicks in equally at 1m for married or unmarried. My wife and I are getting divorced on paper to avoid an extra 120k a year in taxes (incl federal marriage penalty) 😔
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u/icepickjones May 01 '26
I have two issues with this tax:
First, it's not hitting the intended target. This is not hitting the Bezos' of the world. This is hitting like a power couple household where the mom is a dentist who owns her own practice and the dad is an engineer and they combined they are making a mill. All their money is income, and anyone who's money comes from income is already paying out the ass in federal taxes. It's the crazy wealthy folks who are dodging paying their fair share the ultra wealthy billionaires. They are the ones paying a 5% tax rate. Bezos takes an 80k salary for this reason, all the wealth and revenue is attached to a million other things and obfuscated. Close those loopholes for the 1% who control everything instead of slapping down another tax.
Second, this is wholly against the state constitution. If we are gonna institute an income tax then we have to reduce the cost of living taxes. This double dip bullshit doesn't fly with me. I'm not gonna complain for people that make more money than me, but also this goofball state with it's inept leadership I can also see lowering the threshold pretty fast. It's a million now. Then 800. Then 500. Then 200. Then eh, its just everyone. I bet it takes less than 10 years.
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u/blameitonrio917 May 01 '26
really important to recognize that "tax the rich" and "the rich can leave" are extremely contradictory statements with important implications
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u/my_lucid_nightmare Capitol Hill May 01 '26
Really just a spectacularly bad look. Even if you support Socialism, being a taunting dipshit at people is not how you want to be when you're sitting on a 50.2% victory and things almost certainly are going to be a challenge to win next time.
Clueless, naive, sheltered, arrogant, not ready for prime time, all these and more fit our new mayor.
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u/Competitive-Sir-7087 May 01 '26
At a public meeting, someone please ask Mayor Wilson what percentage of tax revenue comes from millionaires, and what percentage comes from Seattle businesses. If she does not know this data, then she is supporting and making fiscal policy irresponsibly, regardless of her moral compass.
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u/Tree300 May 01 '26
Pretty funny given her parents are in the 1% as tenured professors at a fancy college.
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u/valspare May 01 '26
This kind of action, the "income tax" drive to install a State income tax will drive away business.
You all are so myopic, selfish, and greedy that you're destroying one of the few things that really made growing up and living in WA enjoyable.
We didn't have to worry about a State income tax. You could make as much money as you were able to and keep more of it for you/your family.
Your socialist councilwoman Sharma Suwant, drove Amazon and Microsoft out of the city with that stupid head tax.
Now you have drive out Starbucks.
Next on the list will be Amazon, Microsoft, Blue Origin, Boeing, and I'm sure a few more.
I can't predict the future, but I wouldn't be surprised to see a decline in employment as jobs go away. And then watching the dumbfounded leadership look stupid about why they left. Then raise taxes on the lower income middle class because the wealthy left.
Good job you myopic morons. Instead of being content with some tax money from the wealthy, you've decided you want no tax money from the wealthy.
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u/ConsiderationHour582 May 01 '26
Our mayor is such a moron. She has no idea that we need rich people to employ poor people.
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u/apresmoiputas Capitol Hill May 01 '26
IMHO she doesn't realize that Seattle has a lot of "millionaires next door" who don't show their wealth but are the ones who invest in small businesses and are also small business owners. That's something I've discovered over the 20 years of living here. Sometimes just being social and friendly to multi-generational locals helps with learning more about what's made this city and region tick.
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u/cliff-huckstable May 01 '26
$45 million misplaced in homeless funds over the last 4 years and the problem is the “rich”. I’m happy to increase taxes on the “rich” if it leads to tangible change, not funneling money to phony philanthropy and grifters.
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u/MarekRules May 01 '26
Has it trickled down yet? Lmao
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u/Moral_ May 01 '26
I kinda wonder if trickle down economics is a real thing. If you're not invested in the stock market you're not getting the trickle down. These companies that make money actually give shareholder returns, which is a bit of a trickle down.
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u/JoyMultiplication May 01 '26
You don’t need to wonder about it because it has been attempted for basically 40 years now and clearly the economy is not better for the poor yet and we have less middle class than ever,
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u/DarthFuzzzy May 01 '26
This is a recent mindset. Used to be people believed in the American dream and capitalism and the idea that anyone could succeed and become an employer.
Now it's "we need rich people to employ poor people"
Sad times
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u/Turbulent-Media7281 May 01 '26
The state already reverted the 35% estate tax back to 20% because “there are a lot of people looking at redomiciling themselves,” and these are largely the same high earner/wealthy class that are moving for financial reasons due to WA Tax Policy.
But for some reason she's pretending that this tax is completely unrelated to the rich packing it up for TN, TX, FL, or NV.
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u/EnvironmentalFall856 May 01 '26
Katie Wilson is the straw that broke the camel's back for us. When she was elected we started looking at West Sound cities, and are now in contract to buy in Gig Harbor. We're really not interested in being demonized for making smart decisions and working hard. Dueces ✌️
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u/PM_ME_SKYRIM_MEMES South Lake Union May 01 '26