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Maybe surprisingly, Norway is cheaper than SF for many people. (Not as cheap as Poland, of course.) Admittedly, a lot of consumer goods are more expensive in No
by _delirium 9y ago
Maybe surprisingly, Norway is cheaper than SF for many people. (Not as cheap as Poland, of course.) Admittedly, a lot of consumer goods are more expensive in Norway than SF (especially alcohol). But rent is lower, even in Oslo, which is likely to be many people's biggest expense. Also, health insurance is included in the tax rate instead of a separate expense.
- charlesdm 9y agoRent might be lower, but taxes are much higher, making it much harder to come up with the cash required to pay rent from salary. If you're not a first-timer, but someone with a previous exit and some capital under your belt, then there is the wealth tax to deal with.
- _delirium 9y agoIf you're already rich, yeah, that's a different scenario, then you have a whole wealth-planning thing to think about. If we're talking about a startup founder making more in the neighborhood of low 6 figures, though, taxes are basically a wash between Norway and SF, and cheaper in Norway if you take into account that it includes health insurance while the US taxes don't. For me, what taxes I'd pay if I exited with a fabulously wealthy payday are more in the "Maserati problem" category, but ymmv. Putting in $100k into a Norwegian [1] and CA [2] tax calculator, for example, at that particular income they coincidentally come out almost identical: about $32k (~32% effective rate) in both cases. In Norway it's one central tax at the effective rate of 32%. In SF it's the sum of: 18% federal, 7.65% payroll, 6.3% state. [1] https://skattekalkulator.app.skatteetaten.no/ https://skattekalkulator.app.skatteetaten.no/ [2] https://smartasset.com/taxes/california-tax-calculator https://smartasset.com/taxes/california-tax-calculator