For anyone thinking of moving out of California before/during a major tax event, I _highly_ advise finding and planning with a really good CPA and a tax lawyer

For anyone thinking of moving out of California before/during a major tax event, I _highly_ advise finding and planning with a really good CPA and a tax lawyer that they recommend. I've not personally done it, but I've had my fair share of small talk with CPAs who regal you with "funny" stories about people who attempt to move out of California to avoid the high tax rate when, e.g., they sell their business or some other major tax event. The California FTB is extremely aggressive in these cases. They will both investigate and sue you. It doesn't take much imagination to know what being sued by a state government is going to be like. (The California FTB is a double edged sword; I've had pleasant and helpful experiences any time I've called them up and asked tax questions; but their attentiveness goes both ways it seems) So you better have an immaculate plan in place to prove that you have indeed moved out of the state. One person went as far as making sure to keep every Starbucks receipt from their daily coffee trips after moving to Seattle. (And yes, they had to use that evidence) This only applies to high net worth individuals, and I'm sure the stories can be exaggerated. But a couple hundred bucks of a CPA and lawyer time is worth every penny of the horror you might save in fighting with the FTB. Also, I didn't see it called out in the article, but the biggest downside of California's tax code isn't so much the high tax rate as it is the treatment of capital gains. California doesn't give special treatment to long term capital gains like the IRS does. So the difference is exaggerated in that case; you're paying a marginal of 20% to the IRS and a marginal of 13% to California. That's rough. I do generally agree with California's way of doing it, but with the way things are today I can see why many HNWI at least fantasize about moving out of California. Finally, there are some other tricks to avoid California's tax that have varying rates of effectiveness depending on your situation and desires. I find CRTs to be quite interesting if you find yourself in a situation where you have a high tax FU money event and want to both avoid taxes and do good for the world.