Here's a quick guess: Upper-middle-class families-those President Obama calls "the rich"-in blue states will soon be paying 20% more a year in state and federal taxes. If you pay $100,000 now on an income of $300,000, look for it to be $120,000 in a couple of years.rnFederal income taxes are going up, and deductions are going down; that much we know. Bet also that the 7.65% Social Security and Medicare tax ceiling will be lifted from $106,800 to $150,000 or so.rnTaxes are headed up at the state and local levels, too. Residents in big urban blue states, such as California and New York, will be socked hardest. Take California. Its top income tax rate is 9.3%. More appalling, it kicks in at a mere $47,056 a year. Make too much gold in the Golden State-$1 million a year-and you're pinched by a 1 % surcharge, landing you with the nation's highest income tax rate. California also has a 7.25% sales tax, but that's just a base. Capital gains get no preference; they are taxed like ordinary income.rnFor all that, California spends more than it takes in. The state is on the verge of bankruptcy and just passed a budget with $12 billion in new taxes. The bad news has not escaped the taxpayers. Onetime talent magnet, California now leads the nation in the outflow of its residents to other states. Since 2004 California has lost about 1.5 million people in taxpaying households. At the same time, the state has added 2.4 million people, mostly new-borns and immigrants, legal and illegal, who pay little or no taxes.
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