You can only push some people so far before they'll take their money and run. A tax hike on the richest may be the last straw. They have enough money to pick up and leave the country if they want. These millionaires left the state and the tax hike backfired.
Top Payers Fade Away
Maryland Was Depending On Taxing Millionaires, But They're Disappearing
May 14, 2009|By Laura Smitherman | Laura Smitherman,laura.smitherman@baltsun.com
One of Maryland's budget-balancing tactics - asking millionaires to pay more money to the state - appears to be backfiring as the number of the highest-earning taxpayers dwindles with the flagging economy.
A year ago,
Maryland became one of the first states in the nation to create a higher tax bracket for millionaires as part of a broader package of maneuvers intended to help balance the state's finances and make the tax code more progressive.But as the state comptroller's office sifts through this year's returns, it is finding that the number of Marylanders with more than $1 million in taxable income who filed by the end of April has fallen by one-third, to about 2,000.
Taxes collected from those returns as of last month have declined by roughly $100 million.Maryland Millionaire Tax - Top Payers Fade Away - Baltimore Sun