Delaware may lead the way in lower taxes compared to surrounding states in the Mid-Atlantic Region
Low taxes may not be the only reason to relocate to Delaware, but they sure make it easier. Real estate broker Kathy Sperl-Bell of Active Adults Realty in Delaware answers a question from a newsletter reader, Lewis Grower. He asks: How do Delaware's taxes compare to surrounding states in the Mid-Atlantic region? Does Delaware come out ahead? Watch to find out!
How does the Delaware state income tax compare to surrounding states? Hi. This is Kathy Sperl-Bell at Active Adults Realty in Delaware. If you recall in last month's email newsletter, Boomers and Beyond, we asked for submissions. Questions that you would like to ask that we could feature in one of our Ask the Broker videos.
This question came from Lewis Grower. Lewis asked, "How does the Delaware state income tax compare to neighboring states, such as New York, New Jersey, Maryland, Connecticut, and Pennsylvania?". Lewis, that was a really good question. I realize back in April, May of 2014, we did a rather detailed article titled Boomers: Compare State Taxes Before You Move! But I wanted to go back and see what has changed since then in the past four years.
I put together a chart to compare Delaware, Connecticut, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, and I added Virginia and Washington DC. These tend to be the states from which we see people moving to Delaware. Let's start with the top income tax rate. All have stayed the same, with the exception of Connecticut. Connecticut was one of the highest, and it's now a little higher at 6.99 percent. Delaware has stayed at 6.6 percent for the top income tax rate. This is obviously, these are graduated scales. Maryland, 5.75. New Jersey, my home state, nine percent. New York, 8.82. Pennsylvania, 3.07. Virginia, 5.75. Washington DC, 8.95.
State sales tax. One has actually gone down. New Jersey has gone down to 6.63 percent. Delaware, still zero. Zero sales tax. The only one in this group. Connecticut, 6.35. Maryland, six. New York State, four. We know there are additional sales taxes, definitely in Manhattan I know. Pennsylvania, six percent. Virginia, 5.3. Washington DC, 5.75.
Property tax per capita. Delaware's still the lowest in this group at $855. New Jersey and Washington DC are the two highest. In fact, they're tied for number one at $3074 for Jersey, $3350 for Washington DC. Delaware ranks way down at number 45 for property tax rate. Connecticut's number three. Maryland number 16. Pennsylvania number 20. Virginia number 18.
Now I also had a category in here for the estate tax. I'm not going to go into too much detail, but I will highlight that three of these states have zero estate tax. Last time we did the study, Delaware actually did have an estate tax. It was removed. It was repealed. We have now zero estate tax. Pennsylvania has zero estate tax, and Virginia has zero estate tax. The other states, it's rather complicated so I'm not going to try to answer that here in this video. But I do want to thank you again, Lewis. Appreciate getting your questions, your suggestions, and thank you for watching.
Read more about what we have to say about Delaware's taxes: Lower Delaware Taxes Attract Retirees from Surrounding High Tax States
Want to be in the know about the Delaware lifestyle, newest communities, and the latest neighborhood news? Sign up here for our Boomers & Beyond newsletter today!