Thread: Guam questions
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Old 12-29-2009 | 09:49 PM
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hindsight2020
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Be advised though.... As it pertains to the case of Puerto Rico, there is this long standing fallacy that PR residents "don't pay taxes" when juxtaposed to stateside citizens. This fallacy stems from extrapolating the fact that territories do not pay federal tax, and somehow committing the leap in logic that "no fed taxes= these people don't pay taxes compared to us hard working americans"

Let's take a look at PR personal income tax brackets.....Any income above 25K is taxed at, ready for it? 33%. Yep, more than effectively the stateside citizen at the same income bracket with his federal AND state witholdings combined. How you like them apples? So do your research before spewing the old misinformation.

As to no sales tax. You guys realize the importation cost and tariffs are inclusive on the price of goods in the islands, right? And yes, there now is a sales tax on TOP of the importation costs, at least in PR. I surmise Guam has the same setup. Life in natural-resource-scarce islands is not cheap....

I venture to say being employed in any of the US territories is about the worst tax-related move you could ever do, by far.
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