We lived and worked in MA from 1969 to 2014. The taxes were an annoyance but taxes are often an annoyance.
Our property taxes in NH are a higher rate than in a close Boston suburb because our town has little restraint. The total bill approaches our MA bill in spite of a lower valuation.
Would I move to lower my property tax rate, I don’t think so.
The sales tax was a greater annoyance in MA. Our business customers rarely paid their invoices before we had to pay the sales tax, once they moved us to monthly payments, due to our sales volume.
Although our business was corporate and new computer products, we did computer shows selling bankruptcy stock which we would purchase in order to be able to buy stock of products we were moving volume of. This was a strategic move to allow us to have sufficient inventory of recently discontinued products which our corporate customers had standardized on. Many corporations had a standardization process which took up to a year to change to a later version of a product.
I know the sales tax at show business from first hand experience.
NH is not the tax haven expected for everyone. We pay the “old people’s tax” the 5% tax on interest and dividends. Even got hit with penalties because on our first year in NH we did not know it existed.
There are corporate income taxes here, and an unincorporated business tax.
I am not paying as much in taxes as MA but when we add in assorted fees it is closer than I’d like. Registering 2 cars each year is close to $600 for example. Building permits are required for more activities and not cheap. And in our town, the inspectors can usually find a pile of work which is retractively required to meet code.
Yes, we were pursued for Excise Tax after we were gone, but they backed off after 1 phone call.
