That’s right: Higher taxes don’t make rich people leave states. And courtesy of Gawker and the WSJ, here’s the proof from Stanford:
The study found that the overall population of millionaires increased during the tax period. Some millionaires moved out, of course. But they were more than offset by the creation of new millionaires.
The study dug deeper to figure out whether the millionaires who were moving out did so because of the tax. As a control group, they used New Jersey residents who earned $200,000 to $500,000–in other words, high-earners who weren’t subject to the tax. They found that the rate of out-migration among millionaires was in line with and rate of out-migration of submillionaires. The tax rate, they concluded, had no measurable impact.
The people most likely to leave were persons age 65 and older — in other words, people who were probably going to retire to sunnier, warmer climes anyway. People who were actually still running businesses and whatnot stuck around.
And there you go.
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