New York to Florida is the largest wealth migration corridor in the United States, and the tax code is the engine. One state taxes income at nearly 14.8% at the top for city residents, taxes estates at up to 16%, and runs the most experienced residency audit program in the country. The other taxes none of it.
Here is the complete side-by-side, and the parts of the comparison New Yorkers most often get wrong.
The Headline Comparison
| Tax | New York | Florida |
|---|---|---|
| Top state income rate | 10.9% | 0% |
| NYC resident surcharge | up to 3.876% more | n/a |
| Capital gains | Taxed as ordinary income | 0% |
| Retirement income | Partially taxed (first $20k exempt) | 0% |
| Estate tax | Up to 16%, with a cliff | None |
| State + local sales tax | 8.875% in NYC | 6–7.5% |
| Property tax | ~1.4–2%+ in suburbs | ~0.8% homesteaded |
Unlike the California comparison, where the income tax is essentially the whole story, New York adds a second seven-figure line item: the estate tax.
Income Tax: The Recurring Savings
New York State’s brackets top out at 10.9% on income over $25 million, with a 10.3% bracket above $5 million and 9.65% above roughly $1.1 million. New York City residents pay a separate city income tax on top — up to 3.876% — bringing the combined top rate to nearly 14.8%, the highest combined state-and-local rate in the country. And Albany’s direction of travel is higher, not lower.
Capital gains get no preference: New York taxes them as ordinary income. Florida taxes nothing — wages, gains, dividends, interest, retirement distributions, all at zero, with a constitutional prohibition on ever creating a personal income tax.
Annual difference for a New York City resident:
| Annual Income | Approx. NYS + NYC Tax | Florida Tax | Annual Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| $500,000 | ~$55,000 | $0 | ~$55,000 |
| $1,000,000 | ~$125,000 | $0 | ~$125,000 |
| $2,000,000 | ~$267,000 | $0 | ~$267,000 |
| $5,000,000 | ~$690,000 | $0 | ~$690,000 |
Estimates — deductions and income character move the numbers, and suburban filers drop the city tax but often pick up the nation’s highest property taxes instead. The direction never changes.
The Estate Tax Cliff: The One-Time Seven-Figure Item
New York is one of the few states that still taxes estates, at rates up to 16% — and it does so with a mechanism practitioners call the cliff. Estates under the exemption (roughly $7 million, indexed) owe nothing. But exceed the exemption by more than 5%, and the exemption vanishes entirely: the whole estate is taxed from the first dollar.
A New York-domiciled estate of $12 million can owe over $1.2 million to Albany. The same estate domiciled in Florida owes zero state estate tax. For families above the threshold, this single line item can exceed a decade of income tax savings — and it turns on domicile at death, which is exactly what a properly executed Florida move establishes.
Property and Sales: Smaller Gaps, Same Direction
Property. Westchester, Nassau, and Suffolk counties carry some of the highest property tax bills in America — effective rates commonly 1.4–2%+ on full market value. Florida homesteaded property runs closer to 0.8%, with the homestead exemption and the Save Our Homes 3% assessment cap protecting permanent residents. The honest offset: coastal Florida windstorm and flood insurance is expensive and belongs in the math. NYC co-op and condo owners, whose effective property taxes are often artificially low, may see less of a gap.
Sales. NYC’s combined rate is 8.875%; most of Florida sits between 6% and 7.5%. Real but minor.
The Catch: New York’s Two Ways to Keep Taxing You
The comparison only pays off if New York actually lets go, and New York has two distinct claims.
Statutory residency. Keep any New York place of abode and spend 184 or more days in New York — any part of a day counts, a single minute in the state is a New York day — and you are taxed as a full New York resident regardless of your Florida domicile. This is the statutory residency trap, and it’s mechanical: the day count decides, and the burden of proving your days falls on you.
Domicile audits. Even under 184 days, New York will audit whether you genuinely moved your life — the auditors’ checklist runs from where your dog lives to where your dentist is. New York’s residency audit program is the oldest and most systematic in the country, and departing high earners are its core caseload. Some leavers also discover New York-source income follows them: New York workdays, New York businesses, and New York rental income stay taxable forever.
The 183-day rule is the spine of the defense: 183+ documented days in Florida, fewer than 184 in New York, and a contemporaneous record proving both. The step-by-step move is in the New York-to-Florida tax guide.
How Southbound Helps
Every row of the tables above depends on one provable fact: where you actually were, day by day. New York audits arrive two to three years after the tax year, and a day count rebuilt from memory and credit card statements is precisely what auditors know how to dismantle.
Southbound builds the record automatically. The app runs passively on your iPhone using iOS’s significant-location-change system, logs every day as Florida or not Florida with GPS backing, and stores it in your personal iCloud — never on our servers. The Departure Budget on the dashboard shows how many days you can still spend outside Florida this year, which for split-state New Yorkers is the number that decides both the statutory test and the domicile story.
The savings are the easy math. Southbound handles the part New York actually fights about.
This post is for general informational purposes only and does not constitute tax or legal advice. Rates, brackets, and exemption thresholds change; figures reflect recent published rates and are approximate. New York residency and estate matters are high-stakes and fact-specific — work with a qualified CPA or tax attorney before acting on anticipated savings.
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Published Aug 14, 2026