Ya mon. your first option is my dream place. Just like you said No crime, no taxes, high residual home value. I can "endure" that sun, sand, surf and boating sea!

Did you know they have the opp problem we do? high net worth westerners scrambling to get citizenship there.

I suggest you table that one again.. the kids will love it. If not, just countdown till they go to college.

Western Washington. No state income tax. I like Bellingham. Close to Vancouver for international flights. Or SEATAC. Seattle is almost 2 hours away.

Property taxes about 1% thereabouts.

Sales taxes are highish, like 8.6%.

The beauty of the Puget Sound and North Cascades without the expense of Seattle.

ETA - you married Jerry Hall too?

Washington state was my #1 choice!

Seattle resembles a less crowded Vancouver. Our daughter visited Seattle and remarked how even the street people were so laid back and polite.

But the 20% state estate tax is the killer. The maximum estate tax north of the border is the $15 per thousand here in Ontario, which is bad enough.

***

So many threads here, but taxes are evidently irrelevant. Everyone here must be too poor, too rich or too devious to care.

Hi worthy. Being a dual cdn/usa citiezen, I have lived in ont., Alta, b.c., Idaho and Florida. Have travelled across Canada and throughout the USA,

My strong suggestion...Go to Idaho, awesome place to live. If I could choose the idyllic place to live it would be the Boise area. In fact, Meridian (just outside of Boise) has been ranked in the top 10 safest cities and best retirement cities to live in the USA. So much to do, especially if you love the outdoors. Winters are great, mild too. Skiing is in your back door as well. http://idahonews.com/news/local/usa-today-survey-ranks-meridian-best-city-to-live-in

https://www.forbes.com/pictures/eddf45gihi/no-2-boise-idaho/#6fb5b7412abf 

Even though taxes are high up in Canada, rememember the cost of health care is astronomical south of the border.

Estate tax: Even for Canadians?

A good lawyer can help. Hopefully Washington is not my last stop!

Estate tax: Even for Canadians?

Dual citizen.

But even if you're Canadian, Canadian income taxes will apply unless you cut the key determining ties, e.g., permanent Cdn. residence, spouse and dependents still living in Canada and most secondary ties.But you can still retain Cdn. citizenship.

cost of health care

Good point! But I was taking that into account. So much so that my mailbox was filling up with US health insurance emails.

Besides sky-high income tax rates, there are national and provincial sales taxes on virtually every purchase except unprepared supermarket foods. The Harmonized Sales Tax (HST)--sounds so lyrical, eh?--is 13% in Ontario.

So many threads here, but taxes are evidently irrelevant. Everyone here must be too poor, too rich or too devious to care.

Or maybe most just don't care where someone, with their main goal being the avoidance of taxes, moves.

So many threads here, but taxes are evidently irrelevant. Everyone here must be too poor, too rich or too devious to care.

Actually, for the most part, taxes are irrelevant. Areas tend to naturally adjust for their tax load so that the total cost of living in an area is about the same as other areas even with different tax loads, assuming that their tax efficiency is anywhere near the same.

There are areas that have a weather or location premium but when you control for that premium the total cost of living doesn't seem to be independent of taxes. I personally moved from one of the highest tax areas to one of the lowest tax areas and my total cost of living is roughly the same.

So what you're really looking for is a red state (Republican), that will likely stay red, since you're planning on dying there, correct? If so, the New England and mid-Atlantic states are NG (sorry about NH), as are those of the West coast and upper Midwest.

So, what kinds of things do you like to do for entertainment/recreation? If you like attending professional team sporting events (football, basketball, baseball, hockey), ID, MT, ND, SD & WY are out, too.

Why are you looking to stay in the USA? Go overseas, turn in your passport, pay the IRS "fee" to give up your citizenship, and voila!

No he's looking to leave Ontario.

How about Arizona? It's only 120 degrees F there atm. Since global warming is a hoax perpetrated by the Chinese it's guaranteed not to get any hotter.

Please don't come to NH. We are full.

LOL. That's what I used to hear from TO refugees who moved to Vancouver decades ago. Climate and lifestyle was their motivation.

entertainment/recreation.

Evoking nostalgia that southerners will never know!

NH may meet all my needs. When I had cottages in the Kawarthas (Ontario) I only used them in the winter. Plus in the southeast where I'm looking, it's barely an hour from a little burg called Boston.

I do wonder if the complete but largely benign American ignorance about Canada--except for its latest Trudeau, maple syrup and hockey--will disturb me. I moved back to my native NYCfor six months and I might as well have been from Mars. Though, in fairness, the rest of the US is equally alien in the centre of the known universe.

Why don't you just do some estate tax planning so there's nothing in your name when you die? What is the money for if it doesn't let you enjoy or choose where you live and how you spend your life? My estate tax lawyer friend has this to say: paying estate taxes is voluntary, it's for the somewhat wealthy who don't plan.

Great advice!

However, the work arounds in Washington State are not that attractive, especially when other jurisdictions beckon.

Areas tend to naturally adjust for their tax load so that the total cost
of living in an area is about the same as other areas even with
different tax loads.

Yes, you have to factor in all costs. Property taxes in New Hampshire are sky high vs. other states and vehicle registrations are determined by the year and value of your vehicles. (But I wasn't planning on a Lambo this lifetime!). Yet home prices are a flashback to the 20th C. On the higher end, I'd say one-third dollar adjusted vs. TO.

Of course, if I change businesses or start losing money hand over fist--which I tend to do periodically--all these decisions will be made for me!

Worthy, without getting into too dense of a comment- perhaps you need to consider both your residency and your corporate domicile. We live in Austin TX ( business reasons, as travel to the 13 states where we have clients we need to get to is EASY) but we're incorporated in WY. Nobody "has us" on state taxes. As a corporation, we can't be pegged as "residents". Huh- where is the revenue generated? TX. No State taxes, so hands off, none of their ridiculous fees- they don't see us, since corporately, we're not here. WY is still holding the line on no ridiculous fees.

So yes- we pay some ridiculous real estate taxes in ATX, but no other State fees, save for the yearly fee. On balance, with business travel savings, wear and tear on bodies for travel PLUS not being taxed as a "corporate resident" anywhere has made it all worthwhile.

Get a good corporate attorney, work with your accountant and work it out. Just business decisions.

you need to consider both your residency and your corporate domicile.

Good points.

In my mind, I know we run a very simple business from a home office. But when I see the hundreds of pages of tax filings, oy vey! Even my Cdn. C.A. can't make sense of the US returns and US federal and, until recently, state taxes I had to pay.

And only by a fluke will I avoid the US capital gains tax on the resale of our Canadian home, the "hidden tax" that catches many dual citizens here with a vicious surprise. (From 2016 forward, sales of principal Cdn. residences must be reported on Canadian returns with severe penalties for non-reporting; there's still no tax in Canada, but all info on duals is shared with the IRS.). mrs. worthy is not a dual so the residence in her name renders gains taxfree.