Living in California...

[thedoc46]

I did it back in 2004. The wife and I. Here's how.....

Invested $265k into an E2 business, put the wife as a president of the corp so that I could get an EAD card. $265 was about 145k GBP back in 2004. Which was raised from buying and selling a couple of properties in Greater London. Neither of us had money when we met a few yrs earlier. Only our cars, which we sold for a deposit on our first place back in 99.

Anyway, from there once I was in the US, i quickly went about finding a job, and once i was in, asked the employer to sponsor me.. Long story short, it was a long road, especially as the economy tanked, and I lost my job. Lucky for my I found another job 3months later and asked them to sponsor me again.. Which they agreed too. I went thru an EB3 visa, and when my status was starting to run out, I switched to an H1B to keep me in the country.

Anyway in 2011, we both rec'd our greencards. The only thing I really miss is being able to travel to Europe twice a yr for two weeks a pop.

I could move to CA if i wanted too, and I do often think about doing it. We'd just have to downsize our home.. Not sure i want too, besides, the company i work for, has offices all over the States, and i get to travel to all of them reasonably often.. So i have my choice of places if i wanted to move.. but i'm quite settled here in Naples FL.. I live in a gated community, which is pretty much like a 5 star resort hotel. I don't ever have to worry about crime. EVER ! Life is good. I'm much happier than i could have ever been, living in suburbia London. Actually a little too good.. It's going to be hard to match it elsewhere. lol...

One other thing I should mention, are that taxes are sooooooo much less here. Your paycheck takes you a lot further than it did in the UK.

 

[G-MAN2004]

I used to live in Cali, (I grew up there and my Mum is a Californian) but I doubt my experiences would be any help to the OP at all.

Some parts of California are expensive, particular in South Cali...but others are alright.

If I remember correctly, you have duel citizenship right? What are your reasons for not just packing up and moving back over there?

I'd be over there in an instant!

 

[Rich_L]

My neck of the woods (Santa Barbara) is awesome, pretty much the best climate in the world year round but have ski and surf within a few hours drive, could even do both in the same day if I felt like it

Housing is basically London+++ prices, bog-standard 3-bed house can be around $1million and you go up from there. Move away from the coast a bit though and it gets much cheaper - Palm Springs housing is actually pretty reasonable if you don't mind living in the desert Healthcare sucks unless you're on a golden ticket like D.P., most companies IME will cover a decent portion or all of your monthly health insurance costs but leave you on the (albeit tax-free) hook for your significant other(s) if they don't have insurance through their work - plus of course despite the huge wads of money going to the insurance companies every month you still seem to end up stuck with bills if you do actually have to use the system

I married an American which was (relatively) easy although I have half a dozen friends who are currently living here having moved over from the UK in the last few years. 1 is here through marriage, 2 work in finance so got internal transfers to New York within a couple months of making it known they wanted to move, 2 work for big pharmaceutical companies with it working in a similar and the last one works one of the big consultancy firms and also got an internal transfer within a couple months of making it known.

So simple ways are either marry or work in an international firm in banking, law, accountancy, big pharm etc and you can probably get a transfer to the US without much difficulty.

 

[areksnumbr1sxylady]

If I remember correctly, you have duel citizenship right? What are your reasons for not just packing up and moving back over there?

I'd be over there in an instant!

I have plenty of friends with dual citizenship (UK/USA)... Once you have opportunity to move in a jiffy, many start looking at things realistically and with some concluding that UK offers a better life for them.

Grass is always greener on other side, until you get right to cross over any time you like... Then grass becomes mellow on both sides.

 

[Castiel]

If I remember correctly, you have duel citizenship right? What are your reasons for not just packing up and moving back over there?

I'd be over there in an instant!

The States is not all milk and honey...I prefer to live in he UK. The UK is one of the best places in the world to live in my opinion.

I visit the US regularly, but that's enough for me.

 

[Jez]

One other thing I should mention, are that taxes are sooooooo much less here. Your paycheck takes you a lot further than it did in the UK.

Really? I did a full cost analysis (MA, due to an easy transfer opportunity to that area) and i really didn't think that was the case. I know this will vary significantly state to state but total tax burden there i found to be remarkably similar to that which we experience here.

Property taxes, sales taxes, state income, fed income, healthcare, vehicle taxes, once added up, living (in MA anyhow) doesn't seem cheap to me at all. Even property seems no cheaper, being comparable to England home counties.

Perhaps MA is just particularly bad

 

[Dr House]

I did it back in 2004. The wife and I. Here's how.....

Invested $265k into an E2 business, put the wife as a president of the corp so that I could get an EAD card. $265 was about 145k GBP back in 2004. Which was raised from buying and selling a couple of properties in Greater London. Neither of us had money when we met a few yrs earlier. Only our cars, which we sold for a deposit on our first place back in 99.

Anyway, from there once I was in the US, i quickly went about finding a job, and once i was in, asked the employer to sponsor me.. Long story short, it was a long road, especially as the economy tanked, and I lost my job. Lucky for my I found another job 3months later and asked them to sponsor me again.. Which they agreed too. I went thru an EB3 visa, and when my status was starting to run out, I switched to an H1B to keep me in the country.

Anyway in 2011, we both rec'd our greencards. The only thing I really miss is being able to travel to Europe twice a yr for two weeks a pop.

I could move to CA if i wanted too, and I do often think about doing it. We'd just have to downsize our home.. Not sure i want too, besides, the company i work for, has offices all over the States, and i get to travel to all of them reasonably often.. So i have my choice of places if i wanted to move.. but i'm quite settled here in Naples FL.. I live in a gated community, which is pretty much like a 5 star resort hotel. I don't ever have to worry about crime. EVER ! Life is good. I'm much happier than i could have ever been, living in suburbia London. Actually a little too good.. It's going to be hard to match it elsewhere. lol...

One other thing I should mention, are that taxes are sooooooo much less here. Your paycheck takes you a lot further than it did in the UK.

just out of interest what happened to the company you invested in?

 

[thedoc46]

just out of interest what happened to the company you invested in?

Sold it once i had a work based visa. We had two babies at home and my wife wanted to be a full time stay at home mom. Running a biz is a 7 day a week affair.

The important strategy in ever buying an E2 business, is not to have it both in your names, so one of you can get an EAD card, and then get employment sponsorship. An E2 visa has to be renewed every 2 to 5 yrs and it NEVER leads to a greencard, whereas an EB visa does. However, once you move to employment sponsorship, your spouse is NOT allowed to work. Which was perfect timing for us two, since the kids were not at school. Now they're both in full time school, my wife has now gone back into part time work.

I would compare moving to America around the same as starting a new business in terms of risk and financial risk. You're going to have to cut some deals, be a good people person (with employers, to convince them to sponsor you) The timing in your life is going to have to be right, as in able to pickup if it all goes wrong. But like owning your own business and making it a success, if it all goes well, then the rewards are huge. If not, you end up losing a lot.

Actually, it was around 10yrs ago today, that i was sitting at work, and started day dreaming about moving out to the USA. By March, I'd found a business broker, booked a flight by myself to go sniffing around for businesses for sale, put the house up for sale, found something, signed, sold the house and spent 6months living with parents, while waiting for visa's and paperwork. Signed in March, was out here by Oct.

 

[Tunney]

Really? I did a full cost analysis (MA, due to an easy transfer opportunity to that area) and i really didn't think that was the case. I know this will vary significantly state to state but total tax burden there i found to be remarkably similar to that which we experience here.

It really depends on the state. Both individual income tax and sales tax range from 0% to about 12%. Popular states (California, New England, Hawaii) tend to have higher tax rates. Alaska, on the other hand, has no individual state income tax and no state sales tax.

Even the highest is much lower than here but you obviously pay a lot more in health care and higher education costs.

 

[Jez]

factor in;
- Both levels of income taxation (which certainly apply in MA and CA!),
- Higher property taxation
- Higher sales taxation burden (remember food and used items are zero rated here in terms of our VAT - sales tax on used cars over there is a massive cost for example, then there are expensive appliances and furniture which you would often buy used avoiding VAT over here, over there you can slap up up to 10% sales tax on everything you do)
- Education costs, health care costs, similar vehicle taxes, higher vehicle insurance costs.
- Similar housing cost

I dont see that it is much lower at all, it is completely comparable as far as i can see with some aspects being favourable both ways. Remember that property is very cheap in the UK, too, if you wish to live away from employment prospects.

 

[thedoc46]

General living is generally much cheaper. Petrol for starters. House prices are less expensive unless you're in NYC or San Fran / LA. You're not paying parking everytime you want to pop out to the bank.. Eating out is much cheaper. Clothing, electronics. Much cheaper. Cars, motorbikes... My income tax is hardly anything, plus they give me back 4k when i put my taxes in.

Healthcare, well that's the big one.. I'm only paying $150 per month for my entire family, granted, I'm VERY lucky to have entire family coverage for not a lot, and of course, with that, I get access to some of the very best healthcare in the world.

Bottomline....I'm not paying for all the freeloaders, which is why my money takes me a LOT further than it ever did in England.

 

[D.P.]

Really? I did a full cost analysis (MA, due to an easy transfer opportunity to that area) and i really didn't think that was the case. I know this will vary significantly state to state but total tax burden there i found to be remarkably similar to that which we experience here.

Property taxes, sales taxes, state income, fed income, healthcare, vehicle taxes, once added up, living (in MA anyhow) doesn't seem cheap to me at all. Even property seems no cheaper, being comparable to England home counties.

Perhaps MA is just particularly bad

I certainly pay much less taxes in the US than I would in the UK.

So property taxes are about 0.5-1% of the property value. For most people this will be very similar to council tax.


Sales taxes are 0-7% depending on state and what you are buying, purchase a $3000 camera online and you dont pay any taxes, do that in the UK and you are paying $600. Sales tax is a lot lower than EU VAT.

State Income and Fed income, yep, but the rates are much lower than the UK at the same salaries. I think at the lower income brackets you might end up paying a little more but that varies. Last year when doing my US taxes I checked what I would in the UK and I paid around $10,000 less tax in the US than I would in the UK.

Furthermore, interest on mortage istax deductible. That will save ,me another 5-7K or more this year compared to the UK.

Healtcare is generally provided by employer at reduced costs. The employee pay for some policies has to be compared against Nation Insurance which is around 10% in the UK.Mty Eife pays much less in health insurance costs than a UK NI on her salary.



Vehicle Taxes are far cheaper. I paid $120 USD for 4 years of vehicle registration. Just checking the road tax on my Subaru Forester would be
£285.00 for 12months! There is just no comparison. Then figure that I pay under 50p per liter for gas (that is the local garage down the street, divde by 3.7 for US gallons to litres, USD to GBP). Then I paid $20,000 for a brand new 2012 Forester, the same model in the UK is £30,000 so twice the price.



Living costs vary by region massively.Where I have been the last 2 years and where I have now moved to thing are a fraction of the cost of larger UK cities. I just purchased a house, it must be at leats 4x the size of my sisters house and cost well under half. She lives not too far from Ayslbury in a small village. But yeah, if you look at LA/SF/NY prices then you see it similar to much more than London, but then salaries reflect that.



Saying all of that don't expect US taxes to be vastly less than the UK once they are all added up. It is less, and the more you earn the bigger the gap. In the UK you are very quickly into the 40% tax bracket and you loose 10% on NI.

 

[D.P.]

factor in;
- Both levels of income taxation (which certainly apply in MA and CA!),
- Higher property taxation
- Higher sales taxation burden (remember food and used items are zero rated here in terms of our VAT - sales tax on used cars over there is a massive cost for example, then there are expensive appliances and furniture which you would often buy used avoiding VAT over here, over there you can slap up up to 10% sales tax on everything you do)
- Education costs, health care costs, similar vehicle taxes, higher vehicle insurance costs.
- Similar housing cost

I dont see that it is much lower at all, it is completely comparable as far as i can see with some aspects being favourable both ways. Remember that property is very cheap in the UK, too, if you wish to live away from employment prospects.

RAW Food is zero VAT in the US as well. Prepared food is taxed, that is the same in the UK, you just don't see it.

And I don't know where you are getting 10% from, MA has a slaes tax of 6.25%.

Also if you buy a car privately second hand then there are no sales taxes, same with furniture and everything else. If you buy new things online like new furniture then you don't pay any taxes.


I think your figures are very distorted. If you haven'tlived here then you wont be seeing what the levels of taxatio is really like.


I estimate I save around 10-15% of my paychek when all told vs the UK, and then save time and time again when eating out, filling up with gas, buying toys and have a house that costs far less than comparable locations in the UK.

 

[Clipsey]

I look at it this way now, the more tax I'm paying the happier I am (as the more successful my business is )
I hope to have huge tax bills at the end of the year, means I'm doing really well.


I still believe it is MUCH cheaper overall to live here in the States. As something just random like paying for parking when going shopping, never gonna happen over here.

PS - I don't necessarily prefer living in either country, however the stage of life I'm at right now, it is much more beneficial for me to live here in the States (wife, new born, business etc)

 

[D.P.]

My neck of the woods (Santa Barbara) is awesome, pretty much the best climate in the world year round but have ski and surf within a few hours drive, could even do both in the same day if I felt like it

Housing is basically London+++ prices, bog-standard 3-bed house can be around $1million and you go up from there. Move away from the coast a bit though and it gets much cheaper - Palm Springs housing is actually pretty reasonable if you don't mind living in the desert Healthcare sucks unless you're on a golden ticket like D.P., most companies IME will cover a decent portion or all of your monthly health insurance costs but leave you on the (albeit tax-free) hook for your significant other(s) if they don't have insurance through their work - plus of course despite the huge wads of money going to the insurance companies every month you still seem to end up stuck with bills if you do actually have to use the system

I married an American which was (relatively) easy although I have half a dozen friends who are currently living here having moved over from the UK in the last few years. 1 is here through marriage, 2 work in finance so got internal transfers to New York within a couple months of making it known they wanted to move, 2 work for big pharmaceutical companies with it working in a similar and the last one works one of the big consultancy firms and also got an internal transfer within a couple months of making it known.

So simple ways are either marry or work in an international firm in banking, law, accountancy, big pharm etc and you can probably get a transfer to the US without much difficulty.

Just to say I don't have a golden ticket or anything special in regards to my contract or health care. Everything is really standard for a software company, if anything since we are a small company the benefits are less than bigger competitors. I've been hired, get paid and get benefits the same as the other americans in the office. i wasn't head hunted, transferred or kidnapped.

I saw a job posting online, I applied, I got the job, they had no issues paying $5-7k for visa (the actualvisa is less but you have to add attorney fees and time etc.) because that is a drop in the ocean comapred to total employee and hiring costs. I mean just to interview people we fly them over, give them a good hotel and car rental for a few days and dinner money. Thats a couple of k gone already. Tehn the company time really adds up. We have a horribly protracted interview system and we roughlyloose about 40-50% productivty as a company for that day. Something like $10-15K is lost just in interviewing someone. If we give them a job then they get $7-10k moving expenses. You then pay them between $75-120K depending on position, give them $3k computer and hardware, pay all the benfits and SS taxes. So paying an extra $5-7K to get someone a visa is really meaningless. So for all those wondering why a US company would pay for a visa you have to put the numbers in perspective.

The reason why I can get everything paid for is that we have a High deductible health savings paln. This means that we are responsible, in theory for the first $2500 of health costs in the year, after that the isnurance pays 100%. Now that first $2500 is paid to us in monthly installments inot our Health Savings Account (HSA) tax free and we get to spend that on anything we want health related like toothbrushes, condoms, contact lens solution. Anything not spent carries over to the next year and earns decent interest, tax free.

This is a very standard health insurance arrangement but is much less popular than the more common HMO plans. The benefits is it is actually far cheaper than the low deductible plans because you would typcially pay the first $2500, except companies typically give you this amount. This is a newer type of insurance designed to reduce costs because it makes the customer more aware of the costs of treatment.


For glasses and contact lenses themselves we have a completely standard vision package.

 

[D.P.]

I look at it this way now, the more tax I'm paying the happier I am (as the more successful my business is )
I hope to have huge tax bills at the end of the year, means I'm doing really well.


I still believe it is MUCH cheaper overall to live here in the States. As something just random like paying for parking when going shopping, never gonna happen over here.

PS - I don't necessarily prefer living in either country, however the stage of life I'm at right now, it is much more beneficial for me to live here in the States (wife, new born, business etc)

I agree but there are some hidden taxes in the US, you have to add on the social security, medicare, employment taxes etc.. In the UK you get similar stuff (NI). I mean just to watch TV in the UK you have to pay like 130 quid a year.

 

[Raymond Lin]

What is the definition of "a completely standard vision package"?

 

[Clipsey]

I agree but there are some hidden taxes in the US, you have to add on the social security, medicare, employment taxes etc.. In the UK you get similar stuff (NI). I mean just to watch TV in the UK you have to pay like 130 quid a year.

Oh I know and agree, I have quite a few employees for my company and the taxes here there and everywhere that I pay do seem a little redundant.
My one gripe with the States is exactly that, it is very segregated, State to State. Needs to be more universal rules/taxes etc in place.

 

[Jez]

RAW Food is zero VAT in the US as well. Prepared food is taxed, that is the same in the UK, you just don't see it.

And I don't know where you are getting 10% from, MA has a slaes tax of 6.25%.

Also if you buy a car privately second hand then there are no sales taxes, same with furniture and everything else. If you buy new things online like new furniture then you don't pay any taxes.


I think your figures are very distorted. If you haven'tlived here then you wont be seeing what the levels of taxatio is really like.


I estimate I save around 10-15% of my paychek when all told vs the UK, and then save time and time again when eating out, filling up with gas, buying toys and have a house that costs far less than comparable locations in the UK.

I think all we can conclude is that this varies massively state to state. The sales tax was an artibary figure based on the USA as a whole, some states break 10% as a maximum sales tax hence the use of 10%.

Sales tax certainly (in MA anyway, i did not understand it to differ greatly in the way it is payable) does not work like you suggest, 6.25% is payable on a private sale or any other sale when you register and title the car with the RMV. I must say sales tax does confuse me, but as far as i can tell it is most certainly payable on ALL purchases? http://www.mass.gov/dor/businesses/.../motor-vehicle-sales-and-use-tax.html#General
http://www.mass.gov/dor/individuals/taxpayer-help-and-resources/tax-guides/salesuse-tax-guide.html

Have i misunderstood this?

Property is no cheaper and that is without question, i can view property examples, we have even been as far as to look around property there. We would need a comparable amount in the Boston fringes to buy a house which is commutable to the same extent that our house here is commutable from London. This also ignores the fact that London is a wealthier and more prosperous city than Boston. I would imagine that it is actually worse around the fringes of NYC for example.

Edit: i didnt touch on the income taxation, the only way i can see that this is much lower at all would be via huge offsets which have been mentioned above. Certainly the headline no offset figures are remarkably similar?
Take a standard sort of middle management/professional income, $100,000 (£60,000). UK net in basic terms approx £42,000. US net in basic terms approx (Fed+MA State) $69-70,000 = £42000

I need to be educated on offsets as im not seeing this huge disparity?

 

[Tom_ed1987]

My company have an office in New York state which is filled with people who I used to work with in the UK... and they weren't anything out of the ordinary or had irreplaceable skillsets. Most of them applied for the jobs internally and stayed over there for 3 years.