I live in NYC, and the Total New York State & City Taxes is over $10,000 a year on a $109k base salary. See: https://arjun-menon.github.io/tax-analyzer/?income=

I live in NYC, and the Total New York State & City Taxes is over $10,000 a year on a $109k base salary. See: https://arjun-menon.github.io/tax-analyzer/?income=109%2C000&deductions=0&exemptions=1&taxYear=2018 https://arjun-menon.github.io/tax-analyzer/?income=109%2C000... Moreover, the $109k is likely just base salary — there is probably additional stock and cash bonuses on top of that. Note that NY does not have a lower tax on capital gains or dividends (like the federal tax code), so they’ll be taxed like regular income. The $109k is also likely an outdated or incorrect number, as that’s too low a base salary for a Software Engieer in NYC — I expect the average SWE base at Amazon to be something closer to $130k. Besides, I don’t think a business development tax break is unfair as long as it is being granted to all companies (and not just Amazon). That’s what people should be fighting for. In addition, a large chunk of the incentives are state tax credits (I assume non-refundable ones). This means the state is simply going to revive reduced additional revenue because Amazon is moving in — they don’t per de lose money (unless whatever business was going to be built in Amazon’s place would have not have gotten these tax breaks). The way this is being portrayed — it sounds like it’s a literal giveaway to Amazon, which I’m not sure it is (it would be, if it largely consisted of refundable tax credits and state capital grants).