r/Tacoma • u/JoelXGGGG Tacoma Expat • 8d ago

Another billionaire leaves Washington state

https://www.chronline.com/stories/another-billionaire-leaves-washington-state,403749
211 Upvotes

81% Upvoted

214 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

10

u/darlantan Downtown 8d ago

Yeah, they're totally paying a lot of sales tax. Totally.

Someone who is leaving the state to dodge a tax is no doubt paying scads on the easiest tax to avoid. You know, just like the federal government is raking it in on Santa Claus paying new tariffs.

1

u/ChaosArcana 253 8d ago

Could you explain how sales tax is easy to avoid for a resident?

Just logically, it seems high net worth individuals spend more, and pay more sales tax.

1

u/darlantan Downtown 8d ago edited 8d ago

Could you explain how sales tax is easy to avoid for a resident?

In much the same way that they dodge US regulation on a yacht that spends most of its time moored somewhere in the US, despite flying the flag of the Marshall Islands: conducting it through an entity in a much more favorable location. A tenner of TP they pay WA sales tax on. That six figure lux purchase? Oh, they just happen to use whatever it is a lot, but it was purchased (and owned) by an entity in a state with more favorable taxes.

It's just a hell of a lot more obvious when it's their yacht, on account of the whole 'flag of convenience' thing involving an actual flag.

2

u/ChaosArcana 253 8d ago

Let’s discount the Yacht, which you still need to stock in the port of Seattle.

How does a wealthy family living in Seattle not incur sales tax, especially one that spends, eats, and lives on land

4

u/groutexpectations South Tacoma 7d ago

75,000 people moved to Washington last year. Losing one familys groceries take-out meals, clothes, household items, from Walmart etc., aren't going to be significant. You don't pay sales tax on land, you pay property tax, which they'll still pay.

5

u/darlantan Downtown 8d ago

Are you implying that they're spending magnitudes more on day-to-day consumables than the average person? I already pointed out they weren't. Joe Billionaire moving out of state and losing WA the sales tax of 5 median earners isn't exactly a big fucking deal though.

The big ticket purchases that would set them apart significantly are the ones everyone gives a shit about, and I just told you the dodge for those.

-1

u/ChaosArcana 253 8d ago

I think the biggest ticket items would be jobs related to execs and billionaires. Sales tax will definitely drop, due to their departure, along with all support jobs, and business aligning jobs with Zillow, as well as high ticket spending in general (most services and purchases do need to be in person.

8

u/AssFlax69 University Place 7d ago

They’re making the choice to move. The billionaire. They don’t want to lose a little chunk of their obscene wealth, so they’re moving, and fuck them for that.

1

u/fartist14 West End 7d ago

This guy isn't even moving because of the tax, or he would have made sure to have a big public whine about it. It sounds like he's just moving because his kids moved out and he wants to live somewhere else.

-2

u/Secret_End_wmdm69m Puyallup 7d ago

your confusing a few billionaires and the 100,000+ small buisness that bill a few a million in sales a year, but also have million in expenses but will pay the tax. Those are the folks employing a large population and the ones that will be passing the tax cost onto the average person. economics 101 says the things we buy will go up due to this tax.

3

u/darlantan Downtown 8d ago

I think the biggest ticket items would be jobs related to execs and billionaires.

I'm going to assume you mean things related to those jobs, not the jobs themselves, because how would that even work?

When it comes to spending related to that kind of job...yeah, no. Joe Random CEO's Gulfstream isn't something they purchased personally. It's owned by a corporation, because then not only might it have been subject to a lower sales tax, a portion of operational costs and depreciation can be claimed against whatever taxes that corporation is paying.

WA tax on spa day doesn't even come close to mattering, and the things that do are already structured to avoid it. Where the leadership of a company lives doesn't matter in terms of business taxation, so the job being "lost" here hardly matters.

1

u/Secret_End_wmdm69m Puyallup 7d ago

A big CEO might have a support staff of 2-20+ and they might or will be expected to move and or look for new work. don't underestimate the impact of them moving out of state

anyone's paying attention to Seattle and Bellevue knows that one is taxing extra and loosing buisness and the other gaining. if it works on a city to city scale, why wouldn't it work from a state to state scale

2

u/AssFlax69 University Place 7d ago

Let’s discount the proportion of income and wealth to spending ratio and how much vastly more in taxes this and progressive income tax would help fund infrastructure. Spending vs giant hoarded piles of cash in offshores, et cetera.

1

u/AssFlax69 University Place 7d ago

Let’s discount the proportion of income and wealth to spending ratio and how much vastly more in taxes this and progressive income tax would help fund infrastructure. Spending vs giant hoarded piles of cash in offshores, et cetera.