Quote Originally Posted by renf View Post
I wonder where anyone gets the idea that the only income of most seniors is from Social Security. The Census Bureau 2012 American Community Survey reported that 80 percent of men age 65 and over and 63 percent of women in that age group had income from sources other than Social Security. Michigan seniors have a fair amount of income that will be taxed by the amended income tax provisions. Is this one factor encouraging older Michigan residents to move to states with no income tax such as Florida?
Although I am not convinced the change was a good idea, precisely because you probably want to keep as many pension-receiving seniors around as possible, I doubt it has had a huge effect up to now. Seniors in their late 60's or above aren't taxed on their public pension income [[like SS) at all, and aren't taxed on their private pension income until they reach about 45K for an individual or 90K for a couple. There aren't that many seniors with pensions at that level, and those people only pay on the excess, so unless they have very large pensions the amount of additional tax is pretty small. However, as the phase-in phases in, more pensioners will face the higher taxes, and some people who would have stayed may well move.

On the other hand, huge numbers of retirees moved from Michigan to Florida and other warm-weather states before the pension tax change; if the change is a factor, it is only one among many.