
Papirex

Jul 9, 2010, 10:14 PM
Post #7 of 26
(32618 views)
Shortcut
|
Re: [Hound Dog] Paying state income taxes in the USA
|
Can't Post | Private Reply
|
My home state is now Alaska. Fortunately, Alaska has no state income tax so living here in México in my retirement, I owe them zero, zip at tax time every year. I do need to file and pay a little in federal taxes every year, no getting around that. I file using my residence address in Fairbanks, Alaska, I also vote in every federal general election using that address via fax, quick and simple. I Am a native of California born and raised in Napa, and sometime in the 1970s I believe, California passed a state law that any pension earned in that state was subject to California income taxes, regardless of where the retiree had moved to. Some retired federal employees that had left California challenged that law in court and lost. They must have won on an appeal since California doesn't try to extract those taxes from out of state retirees anymore. I earned one of my pensions in California and at retirement, I checked with my union there, and they told me that the state was no longer trying to collect income taxes from people that earned a pension there, but didn't live there anymore. It's a small pension, but it is nice that I don't need to mess with California anymore. One of my daughters gave me an old car just before I retired so I wouldn't need to rent cars when we visited México. She sent the title to me after putting me on as the new owner and I registered the car in Alaska, using an out of state waiver so I didn't need to bother with any smog tests. There is no statewide smog test required up there, only 2 cities require smog tests, Fairbanks and Anchorage, and you may get a waiver if it is located outside of the state. Even though the car was now an Alaska registered vehicle, California kept sending me letters for the next 4 or 5 years threatening that I would be hung by my thumbs if I didn't pay the current, and past years registrations. The folks at the California DMV could all suck lemons as far as I was concerned. They stopped sending those letters at about the same time I nationalized the car down here. We still have it, it is our second car here. My own opinion is that any state that has an income tax, or a state sales tax doesn't know how to manage their finances. That fits California since Reagan served 2 terms as Governor of that state. Rex "The supreme happiness of life is the conviction that we are loved" - Victor Hugo
|