Originally Posted by iahflyr

I live in CA and made roughly 200k last year. Subtract my deductions for owning a house and I paid ~$11k in CA state income tax. CA effective tax rate is not as high as you think, especially if you have deductions. Subtract 28% of that as a write-off on my federal taxes (~$3k), and it only really cost me ~$8k in income tax for living in CA.

I get that 8k is still a lot of money, but it is WAY easier than owning two houses (one in CA and one in Reno/Tahoe), commuting between the two cities, risking a massive fine/jail time for evading taxes if you really spend more of your time in CA, etc.... When I talk to other pilots who do this, I have to remind them how much easier/simpler/potentially even cheaper it is to actually just live in CA versus trying to evade.

Personally I think the ~8k that I pay is a small price to pay for the great weather, beaches, things to do, sunshine, and everything else great about living in CA, but YMMV.