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Comment by jbarham | Hacker News Reader

> $100k base salary in Waterloo adjusted for cost of living would be like an $180k base salary in Mountain View.

Um, no. Even though SV is a high-cost location in a (relative to the U.S.) high-tax state, personal income taxes are still substantially higher in Canada. Housing might be somewhat more in Waterloo than in SV, but the net take home at the end of the year would still be higher.

Assuming you're married and can file a joint tax return w/ your spouse, the U.S. tax advantage goes up even more.

There is no question that if you want to make a lot of money in tech, the U.S. is still the place to be. I say this as someone who has lived and worked in Canada, Southern Californian and now Australia.

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Actually, here are the 100k tax rates for Waterloo, Ontario, Canada vs. SF, California: Waterloo:

26% Federal + 11.16% Provincial = 37.16% http://www.cra-arc.gc.ca/tx/ndvdls/fq/txrts-eng.html

San Francisco: 28% Federal + 9.3%x(0.72) State = 34.7% <-- (9.3%x0.72 because you can deduct your state taxed amount in certain scenarios)

http://www.efile.com/tax-rate/federal-income-tax-rates/ https://www.ftb.ca.gov/forms/catxrate_exmpt07.shtml

Once you get above 174k/year, it's sill similar, with:

Waterloo: 29% Federal + 11.16% Provincial = 40.16%

San Francisco: 33% Federal + 9.3%x(0.72) State = 39.7%

So at 100k, Canadian taxes are very slightly higher higher, and is almost even at 174k.

If you're working at a startup, Canada may even be more advantageous because of how capital gains taxes are treated on privately held CCPC's. Also, you have health care. :)

Except that you deduct your state/local income tax from your federal income tax.

Edit: Your statement that you can deduct income tax is True IF you don't take the standard deduction. Basically in your deduction, you can choose to take the standard $5800 deduction, or deduct the total taxes you paid for california (at $100k, it is only marginally over $5800). At over 200k, you are likely to get hit with AMT, so the deduction would be limited.

I've updated the tax rates above to be more indicative of the adjusted rates in the best case scenario, but California vs. Canada is still VERY close.

http://www.irs.gov/publications/p17/ch22.html

Yup, this is true. I updated my posts to reflect this. However once you get above 200k range, AMT starts to kick in and you can't deduct the full amount.

Health care is a given in the U.S. if you're making that kind of salary so for me it was always a non-issue.

Try re-calculating the tax rates if you have a non-working spouse (as was my case since I was on a work visa) and you're significantly better off in the U.S.

"If you're working at a startup, Canada may even be more advantageous because of how capital gains taxes are treated on privately held CCPC's"

This is huge. Read as "the first $750K of your startup windfall is tax free".

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