September 14, 2007
... when he saweth I boughteth a new car.
I had a nice, frothy rant built up over the property tax I owe for the Jetta -- if I was charged for the full year instead of 8 months or so, it would have been about $340. Seeing as how I'd never had to pay property tax of any kind before I moved here, that kind of ticked me off.
But then I did some research: Localities in Virginia don't collect income tax. But localities in Pennsylvania do collect income tax -- Pittsburgh grabs a full 3% just for itself. Pennsylvania charged me 3.07% for the state's cut. Virginia uses a progressive system like the Fed does; at my current salary my overall tax rate would be about 5.4%.
So it really comes down to: In Pittsburgh I'd have paid 6.07%. Here I'm paying about 5.4% plus $340. That would take me up to 5.9%-ish. Which means Virginia does suck for taxes, but back in Steeler Country it would have sucked even worse. All I need to do now is avoid any $3000 speeding tickets (I wish I was making that up) and I'll be all set.
