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Comment by samirahmed | Hacker News Reader

It appears that Teton County Wyoming is the county that pays the most on average at 67k.

Does anybody have any insight into why that is? For the most part i understand that high taxes in the more populous and economically prosperous zones but why a county in Wyoming?

edit: From the nested link

> "In addition, some counties that host popular ski resorts—such as Pitkin County, CO (which contains the city of Aspen) and Teton County, WY (which contains Jackson Hole)—also have notably high income tax burdens."

http://www.brookings.edu/blogs/up-front/posts/2013/12/13-inc...

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I had the same question. They have a small population (~20,000), and 65% of the county's income is derived from capital gains, not wages. I'd guess the county is an enclave that wealthy people move to after they've made their money elsewhere. Wyoming has no personal or business income tax.

http://www.jhnewsandguide.com/news/top_stories/irs-county-is...

http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/nation/2004-04-17-wyomin...

I wonder what it's like to live in those counties -- do people just stay on their large standalone properties? Are there local services catering to billionaires, like in Palo Alto there are stores like Restoration Hardware catering to mere millionaires? Do the megarich actually spend appreciable amounts of times there, or is it just a "permanent residence" for people who are otherwise transient?

Jackson definitely has those services. I used to live in Cheyenne but went over to Jackson once a year or so. My old boss moved up there recently and now works remotely as a programmer from a cabin he built.

Jackson is amazing... Housing is expensive though!

Wikipedia

"Teton County contains the affluent Jackson Hole skiing area. In addition, the county contains all of Grand Teton National Park and 40.4% of Yellowstone National Park's total area, including over 96.6% of its water area (largely in Yellowstone Lake).

It has the highest personal per capita income in the U.S. at $132,728, surpassing Manhattan with $120,790."

Exactly - as soon as I saw that black area, immediately thought "Jackson Hole".

Not only is it a very popular skiing area, it's also not a bad place to retire if you enjoy the outdoors, hence, capital gains are a major source of income for the wealthy retirees there.

Also note this 66k accounts for about 18% of income.

For comparison, Shannon County in South Dakota (ranked 3135) pays $922, or 4.5% of income.

(There should probably be someone ranked 3144th, but Shannon seemed pretty close to the bottom...)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/County_(United_States)#Statisti...

Shannon County is the 48th poorest county in the US by household income, and the second poorest, after Buffalo County, SD, by per capita income.

My brother used to work on an ambulance crew on the Pine Ridge reservation, which contains Shannon County. The poverty there is absolutely staggering, and absolutely heartbreaking.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_lowest-income_counties...

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