677 of most wealthy flee county

By Taxpayers Association of Oregon
OregonWatchdog.com

The Oregonian has a story about the dramatic change in Multnomah County taxpayer migration since a big income tax increase was passed in 2020. The Preschool-for-All ballot measure raised income taxes by 1.5% to 3%.  A second big income tax was passed in the same year with the Homeless Services Tax, which impacted the tri-county area with their own 1% income tax increase.   These two taxes upon Oregon’s already high income tax made Multnomah County one of the highest income tax areas in America.

The Oregonian has this interesting observation, “The only caveat comes when looking back on the top 1,000 filers over the life of the tax. The county has tracked those top income earners each year to see how many have returned to pay the tax in later years. Of those who paid in 2021, 367 did not return to pay the tax in 2024, up from 310 in 2023.

So in two years, 677 of the highest income earners (from the top 1,000) left the county. That means during those two years, nearly 40% of the top earners were leaving. That is a huge loss.

The article points to new high earners entering the system, but those incoming are only roughly half of the people leaving. You are losing the highest-paying taxpayers faster than they are being replaced.

IRS data on migration reveal that taxpayers exiting Multnomah County average $105,800 in annual income, while newly arriving residents average $73,540.

This verifies that Portland and Multnomah County taxes are too high and are driving out their highest-paying taxpayers.

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