Mar 31 2008

Maine is #1

Published by Jason at 10:08 am under Important Info

Maine is #1 – In Taxes! I’ve seen this bumper sticker on quite a few cars since we moved up here. Until last week I wasn’t really aware of what they meant. Was it just property taxes (which I’d heard were high), or was the income tax out of whack too? Well, since we don’t own property, I can’t comment on the former, but the latter certainly is true.

After finally buckling down and finishing our taxes (federal, New York, and Maine) this weekend, I’ve realized that Maine’s income tax really is quite high. Amber and I ended up with refunds from Uncle Sam and New York state, but owing a good chunk of change to our new home state. It seems that ~75% of our AGI came from our time in New York (going from a full-time teacher’s salary to a part time salary dropped Amber’s income significantly). Some how, though, New York only accounted for a hair shy of two-thirds of the state income tax we’ve ended up paying for the year.

That’s right. 25% of our income ended up netting us 33% of our state tax liability. Looking at the numbers a little more closely, the tax rate in Maine ended up being just over 2% higher than in New York (something like 5.1% in NY and 7.2% in Maine). New York was never an inexpensive place to live, tax-wise, and I’d heard Maine wasn’t either, but I had no idea! I guess it’s time to adjust those W-4s…

5 responses so far

5 Responses to “Maine is #1”

  1. # Mike Harmonon 31 Mar 2008 at 10:39 am

    I came across your blog on Technorati. Nice site layout. I will stop by and read more soon.

    Mike Harmon

  2. # FyreGoddesson 01 Apr 2008 at 10:13 am

    Time to start having babies!

    Best. Tax break. EVER!

  3. # Jasonon 01 Apr 2008 at 10:16 am

    Uhh…yeah. I’ll have to keep that in mind. Thanks for the tip! :-P

    -Jason

  4. # SteveGon 01 Apr 2008 at 11:39 am

    Jason,

    Thanks for the tax seminar. I have the same 2 state issue. Which NYS form did you prepare and which Maine form did you prepare. Here in NYCity we are over 10% combined so Maine maybe cheaper for transplanted downstaters. By the way, our property tax for Stevens Ave. is about $3500 which compares favorable with the property tax in NYC and much cheaper than the NYC suburbs. So for us, Maine is no worse than NYC which probably is the highest income taxed jurisdiction in the US. All the best. Steve

  5. # Jackon 01 Apr 2008 at 6:15 pm

    Just remember the best thing about kids, buddy – making them!

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