NH has no state income tax or sales tax, but they do have high property taxes. Everyone is saying that they come out about the same, but, it really depends on your situation.

I’m a relatively high income individual who is a renter, so I definitely make out worse than if I made my same salary in NH. Buy beyond that, salaries in NH are generally higher for my field. Portsmouth vs Portland is a big difference in software pay that I’ve seen, largely because of Boston spillover. Most jobs in Maine do not pay well at all. This state has an array of economic issues and challenges but the wages have to be the most severe, in my opinion.

Also, taxes paid, in and of itself, does not mean much of anything. It’s taxes paid relative to the services that those taxes provide. While MA tax is slightly higher than Maine, they get A LOT more services for those taxes. And the wages are multiple times higher in a lot of cases.

All this to say, I certainly don’t live in Maine for the money. I’m not complaining, but I’m not going to sit here and pretend like the taxes we pay relative to the services we get aren’t fucking shit, cause they are