No. of Recommendations: 6
This year I did my own taxes since I had no issues with needing to file taxes in multiple states, rental property, etc.
After doing the Federal and Arizona state taxes on FreeTaxUSA I wanted to compare my AZ taxes to some other places. I lived a good chunk of my life in Maryland which I knew had higher taxes, although lower sales tax. My rough estimate is for my income in 2025 my roughly $2,500 income tax in AZ, it would have been over $10,000 in Maryland. I looked around and PA would have been lower since they don't tax most pensions, social security (not collecting, yet), IRA withdrawals.
I was looking at New Hampshire which has no income/sales taxes but the property tax is high and basically would been in the $6-10K range.
PA does have an inheritance tax and depending which district you live in, the school tax can be high.
If I were to move elsewhere (the summers here are getting to me), it would likely be PA.
Obviously there are more important things than state taxes but it can definitely cause you to think twice. For me, I don't think I would want to pay an extra $1K a month to live back in Maryland despite having a lot of friends and a few family members back there.
Rich
