Submitted by Edison_Ruggles t3_xu5zno in philadelphia
I'm relatively new to Philly and when I moved here I encountered people (here and elsewhere) who says "oh man, get ready for those taxes..", as if this were some insane tax nightmare city. Granted the complexity of the BIRT/NetProfits thing still makes me crazy, but overall I can't figure out what people are talking about.
Let's take income tax. As far as I can figure, I pay about 7% income tax (3.07 to the State and about 4% to the city). This is completely reasonable and actually a lot less than many progressive states - 13% in CA for example.
Now, property taxes, which I expected to be super high actually seem pretty low - half the rate of Chicago or Milwaukee, though a lot higher than California cities.
I don't give a crap about the soda tax... and sales taxes seem pretty average... so what am i missing? Is this really a high tax city? if so, compared to what, exactly?