High-tax New York in 'death spiral,' Florida Sen. Rick Scott says
President Trump is the latest high-profile New Yorker to announce he is changing his residency to Florida, and Sen. Rick Scott hopes the exodus continues.
Florida has no statewide income tax or estate tax, which is a draw for many. Meanwhile, the top rate in New York is more than 8 percent.
Scott, a Florida Republican, thanked Democratic New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo during an interview with Fox News’ Neil Cavuto on Friday for raising taxes and driving wealthy taxpayers to the Sunshine State.
“It's great for Florida,” Scott said. “What are these states thinking? If you keep raising taxes, what's going to happen to their citizens? They're moving. They can't pay those taxes. And it's impossible to do business up there. So they're going to just keep moving and moving, moving to Florida. It's a death spiral.”
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Scott added that as wealthy taxpayers, like Trump, leave the state, lawmakers are forced to raise taxes on the less well-off people who are left.
Cuomo, who bid “good riddance” to the Trumps on Thursday, took criticism from the president on Friday, who said the state can “never be great again” under either his – or Mayor Bill de Blasio’s – leadership.
Trump announced on Thursday he had changed his primary residence to Palm Beach, Fla., while noting he had paid millions of dollars in taxes while living in the Big Apple.
Scott noted that as more people move into Florida, the state is the main beneficiary.
The Sunshine State drew in a net influx of about $17.7 billion in adjusted gross income from people who moved into the state, according to 2016 IRS data. On the flip side, New York lost the largest amount of adjusted gross income from migration, about $8.8 billion.
Data from the U.S. Census Bureau showed that while Florida received more movers than any other state last year, New York's outflows to the Sunshine State were the highest – 63,772 people. New York had the third-largest outflows of any state, with 452,580 people moving out within the past year.
Cuomo lamented changes to the cap on state and local tax deductions, crediting the provision of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act — and resultant exodus of taxpayers — in part for the state’s $2.3 billion budget hole earlier this year.
Individuals earning $650,000 can save more than $69,700 in taxes per year by moving from New York to Florida.
It was recently revealed that billionaire investor Carl Icahn plans to move from New York to Florida, taking his business with him.
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