Should I Move Out of NY? The Tax Math

Should you flee New York for Florida the second you stop working? Run the income-tax math and the answer looks obvious. Run the rest of it and the obvious answer gets a lot more interesting, because the income tax you’re chasing is the small prize.

The income tax is the part everyone sees

New York’s top income tax rate runs over 10% once you stack the state and city brackets. Florida’s is zero. On a $400,000 retirement income that’s real money every single year, and it’s the headline that launches a thousand “we’re moving” conversations. I get it. Nobody enjoys writing that check.

But before you list the house, know that New York is generous to retirees in ways people forget. It fully excludes Social Security and government pensions, and for 2026 it exempts up to $20,000 of private pension and IRA income per person once you’re past 59½. Your actual New York tax bill in retirement is often smaller than your working-years reflex assumes. The income gap between the two states is real, just narrower than the bumper sticker. This is the math worth comparing side by side before you decide.

The part most people miss: the estate cliff

Here’s the number that should actually move you, and almost nobody leads with it.

New York has its own estate tax, and it has a cliff. For 2026 the exclusion is $7,350,000. Go even slightly past it, and you don’t just pay tax on the overage. You lose the exclusion entirely and the whole estate gets taxed from the first dollar. The federal exclusion for 2026 sits at $15,000,000 per person, so a couple worth $9 or $10 million owes nothing federally and gets hammered by Albany. Florida has no estate tax at all.

For an affluent household, the estate exposure can dwarf a decade of income-tax savings in a single event. That’s the cliff worth understanding cold before you assume this is just about your annual return.

The hidden price: New York doesn’t let go easily

Now the second-order problem, the one that turns a smart move into an expensive mess. New York is one of the most aggressive states in the country at auditing people who claim they left. Sell the house, register to vote in Florida, get a new license, and New York can still come knocking if your life still looks like New York.

They count your days. They look at where your doctors are, where your golf club is, where the dog sleeps, where the art hangs. I’ve seen people “move” on paper, keep the Westchester house “for the grandkids,” spend 180 nights a year in it, and hand the state an open invitation to tax them as residents anyway. Establishing residency is a genuine change in your center of gravity, not a mailing address. Half-measures here are the worst of both worlds: you pay for the move and still pay New York.

My take

The income-tax savings are the bait. The estate cliff is the real catch, and the audit risk is the hook that snags the people who do it halfway. If you’re going to leave, leave for real. Count the days, cut the ties, move your life and not just your driver’s license.

And if you love New York and want to stay, that’s a legitimate answer too. Just price the estate tax with eyes open, and don’t pretend a part-time exit will fool a full-time auditor.