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Comment by jt2190 | Hacker News Reader

Taxes? Canadians jump very quickly into the highest tax brackets. Goods and Services are taxed in Ontario at... 14% now?

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Perhaps surprisingly, that's mostly a wash.

Canadian federal tax is 33% over 200k USA is 33% over 189K

Ontario taxes 11.16% up to 500k California 9.3% up to 250k

... Ok so realistically 2% in taxes :). Maybe that's not a total wash.

But if we're looking at the break-even point it might hit $3k in California's favor

Okay, I tried to graph out taxes between Toronto and SF.

check it out: https://github.com/bsurmanski/TorontoSFTax

It looks like between 60k-200k, taxes in Toronto are actually lower. Between 200k-700k, it is cheaper in SF. At 300k, Toronto tax is about 1.5% more, and at 400k, Toronto tax is about 2% more.

But being realistic, most people in tech would pay less tax in Toronto.

edit: This calculation also does not take into account any other taxes (such as sales tax, or property tax), and is not adjusted for cost of living. SF has an edge in sales tax (8.75% in SF vs 13% in Toronto), but Toronto has a huge edge in cost of living (according to [0], Toronto is 32% cheaper), and property tax (1.14% in SF vs 0.7% in Toronto).

[0] - https://www.expatistan.com/cost-of-living/comparison/san-fra...

don't forget social security. Social security is 5.65%, whereas the equivalent in Canada is the Canadian Pension Plan, which is 4.95%. And you have great medical insurance built right in. [0]

[0] - http://www.investopedia.com/financial-edge/0411/do-canadians...

And social security is owed up to the first ~$110K of income, whereas CPP is only owed on the first ~$50K of income.

That source includes savings due to the exchange rate, even though wages would be in CAD

California's taxes are not straightforward. For example, my effective state tax rate is ~7.3% at $160k. It's a progressive tax, so calculations aren't as easy as slapping a generalized number.

If you're making $500k, it also isn't likely a high point of concern.

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