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Tesla’s headquarters will move to Austin

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Re: Tesla’s headquarters will move to Austin

#461

Post by BuyMyBitcoins »

rcpt wrote: post #413
asdff wrote: post #159

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Property taxes are higher than California, right? I can't find the source handy at the moment, but I've heard that a house in Austin that looks like a couple hundred grand cheaper than an equivalent house in California for the listing isn't actually any cheaper when you factor in the increased taxes and potentially other costs I'm not aware of.

https://www.taxfairnessproject.org Arguably taxes are higher for newcomers. Yes rates are lower but purchase price is insane. But Native Sons of the Golden West pay pennies on the dollar in property tax. Old businesses to. It's a $30B per year tax cut to successful real estate investors. That's 3x the size of the NSF and several billion more than NASA. This is the root of all California's problems. Underfunded school…

>” This is the root of all California's problems.”

No, the root of all California’s problems are Californians. …/s?

Re: Tesla’s headquarters will move to Austin

#462

Post by kelnos »

refurb wrote: post #271
thebradbain wrote: post #179

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Property taxes are _much_ higher in Texas than California, in fact Texas has one of the highest property taxes in the nation (because there's no income tax, and TX still needs to fund itself somehow; TX also has one of the highest sales taxes for this reason, too). You pay the same on property taxes for a $400k house in Texas as a $1M house in California. Not only that, CA has Prop 13: for better or worse, your prope…

Good luck finding a million dollar house in the Bay Area. And TX has a sales tax of 6.25%, while SF is 9.25%. And no state income tax in TX. It’s not even close.

No, SF is 8.625%, which is, as a sibling poster mentions, roughly the same (and in places lower) than in Austin.

Re: Tesla’s headquarters will move to Austin

#463

Post by t-writescode »

WalterBright wrote: post #446
t-writescode wrote: post #442

Earlier quoted context omitted.

https://www.cbsnews.com/pictures/worst-traffic-cities-americ... According to this, Austin Texas is #10 on this chart. #1, LA #2, NYC #3, San Fran #4, San Jose (near San Fran) #5, Seattle #6, Miami #7, DC #8, Chicago #9, Honolulu #10, Austin *two* of the top 5 worst traffic areas in the US are in the Greater San Francisco area.

Seattle traffic isn't so bad if you WFH.

The Wine Country to SF Company commute is a matter of minutes when it's in your pajamas and across the hall.

Re: Tesla’s headquarters will move to Austin

#464

Post by seanmcdirmid »

newhotelowner wrote: post #61
danhak wrote: post #34

California's tax regime is really backward. I suspect Tesla's departure is just the tip of the iceberg and that the repeal of the SALT deduction in 2017 really hastened this trend. High earners pay an effective tax rate of > 50%. They are partially picking up the slack from Prop 13, which artificially distorts the housing market by allowing longtime homeowners to pay property taxes based on decades-old assessed value…

> The exodus will only pick up steam unless policymakers get their act together. I used to live in California. There is no better state than California. If house price falls, I would buy another house in California.

The problem with California is that it is too crowded so no one goes there anymore.

Re: Tesla’s headquarters will move to Austin

#465

Post by beowulfey »

oceanplexian wrote: post #383
pvarangot wrote: post #158

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I talked to several Tesla and former Tesla folks that will probably relocate because of this, and the say is that since Austin in less NIMBY than the Bay Area new housing will get built and prices will go down. It's a more complex bet than just "we move there because houses are affordable now".

It’s a no brainer, my company offered to let me move out of CA a few years ago. My utilities are 50% cheaper and more reliable, crime is lower, the air quality is better, and I bought a new construction with 10G Fiber Internet (You will never get this in California due to failing infrastructure). I miss is the arts, culture, and nightlife, but that was wiped out by government-enacted COVID restrictions so there are f…

People may be leaving but I don’t think it will start to change anything about CA anytime soon. It could lose 25% of its population and still have more than the next most populated state (TX). That’s ten million people—nearly the entirety of the LA metro area.

Re: Tesla’s headquarters will move to Austin

#466

Post by scoofy »

t-writescode wrote: post #442
scoofy wrote: post #307

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Traffic in Austin is insane. Legit insane. Definitely comparable to the Bay Area if not worse. And there is absolutely no transit alternative comparable to BART. There is a morning and evening train, but it's really only effective if you live and work exactly on the stops.

https://www.cbsnews.com/pictures/worst-traffic-cities-americ... According to this, Austin Texas is #10 on this chart. #1, LA #2, NYC #3, San Fran #4, San Jose (near San Fran) #5, Seattle #6, Miami #7, DC #8, Chicago #9, Honolulu #10, Austin *two* of the top 5 worst traffic areas in the US are in the Greater San Francisco area.

Again... LA has a surprisingly extensive subway system. NYC, SF, Miami, DC, and Chicago all have robust public transit. Even San Jose and Seattle have non-negligible transit alternatives.

Austin has essentially nothing, the train they built is legitimately the dumbest, cheapest option that was offered at the time, though they are building dense housing along it now. People often choose which side of the river to live on because of traffic. You're simply not going to convince me that Austin isn't one of the worst cities to commute in, because unless you want to bike in 100ºF heat, you literally have no choice but to engage in it, especially if you have to cross the river.

Re: Tesla’s headquarters will move to Austin

#467

Post by t-writescode »

scoofy wrote: post #466
t-writescode wrote: post #442

Earlier quoted context omitted.

https://www.cbsnews.com/pictures/worst-traffic-cities-americ... According to this, Austin Texas is #10 on this chart. #1, LA #2, NYC #3, San Fran #4, San Jose (near San Fran) #5, Seattle #6, Miami #7, DC #8, Chicago #9, Honolulu #10, Austin *two* of the top 5 worst traffic areas in the US are in the Greater San Francisco area.

Again... LA has a surprisingly extensive subway system. NYC, SF, Miami, DC, and Chicago all have robust public transit. Even San Jose and Seattle have non-negligible transit alternatives. Austin has essentially nothing, the train they built is legitimately the dumbest, cheapest option that was offered at the time, though they are building dense housing along it now. People often choose which side of the river to live…

And yet with all that, their transit is *STILL* worse.

Re: Tesla’s headquarters will move to Austin

#468

Post by quickthrowman »

skissane wrote: post #274
darawk wrote: post #189

Earlier quoted context omitted.

His tax situation really has nothing to do with it. If he sells his Tesla shares, he's still going to owe CA tax. But he never has to sell any Tesla shares, he can just buy hedges against them and take out loans. If you have sufficient capital assets, you never have to actual earn any "income" or generate any "capital gains" if you don't want to.

> But he never has to sell any Tesla shares, he can just buy hedges against them and take out loans So he takes out a $1 billion loan, and he offers $1 billion in stock as a security, and then also buys a futures contract (or a put option) on his $1 billion of stock to lock in the current price, so if the stock goes down in value over the life of the loan, the lender doesn't lose their security? And then when the loa…

> I suppose though, you can't just go on refinancing forever. One day he will die, and then it will have to come out of his estate, and I guess his estate may pay the capital gains tax then?

This is the best part. The cost basis for assets is stepped up on death to the price of the asset on the day that the decedent .. became the decedent. That becomes the cost basis for any capital gains tax the heir would owe if they sold the asset.

Re: Tesla’s headquarters will move to Austin

#469

Post by kelnos »

thebradbain wrote: post #352
bdowling wrote: post #322

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Those moving into the inherited home as their primary residence are not affected. Not true. Only $1m of assessed value is excluded for heirs moving into an inherited property as a primary residence. Inheriting property worth more than $1m is not a bad problem to have, but in places like Los Angeles it means that a lot of people not be able to afford to live in the property and will be faced with either fixing it up…

Thanks for the correction -- you're right. It doesn't really change my point though – I still don't see why a $2M+ property deserves to get transferred tax free. A $2M property would still only pay a little over $10,000/year in property taxes after the $1M exemption (which you can deduct against federal taxes, even with the SALT cap, which itself will likely repealed!). A pretty nice discount for an heir compared to…

> the SALT cap, which itself will likely repealed!

What's your basis for this belief? My understanding around Biden's tax plans was that the SALT deduction cap would likely remain at $10k.

Just did a quick search for recent news, and nearly all of what I'm reading is doom-and-gloom around the possibility that the SALT deduction cap will be repealed. Which makes sense, since that would lower tax revenue, and that's not something politically palatable with the Dems trying to push through multi-trillion dollar infrastructure spending.

Re: Tesla’s headquarters will move to Austin

#470

Post by achenatx »

t-writescode wrote: post #442
scoofy wrote: post #307

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Traffic in Austin is insane. Legit insane. Definitely comparable to the Bay Area if not worse. And there is absolutely no transit alternative comparable to BART. There is a morning and evening train, but it's really only effective if you live and work exactly on the stops.

https://www.cbsnews.com/pictures/worst-traffic-cities-americ... According to this, Austin Texas is #10 on this chart. #1, LA #2, NYC #3, San Fran #4, San Jose (near San Fran) #5, Seattle #6, Miami #7, DC #8, Chicago #9, Honolulu #10, Austin *two* of the top 5 worst traffic areas in the US are in the Greater San Francisco area.

that data uses "congestion" which is the ratio of the worst traffic time to the best traffic time. If you look at average commute times austin is way down on the list.
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