Tax & legal help

For its home-country reference the guide's tax headline is what the United States does not levy: no federal wealth or VAT taxes, and nine states with no income tax at all. What it does levy is state-driven — property tax of 0.3–2.5% of market value by state, and state income tax of 0–13.3% plus local tax in some cities — and beyond those lines it budgets for professional advice rather than quoting federal bands it never prints.

The headline: no federal wealth or VAT taxes, nine states with no income tax

The guide lists among its “schemes that attract expats”: “No federal wealth or VAT taxes” and “Nine states with no income tax.” The site data carries the identical lines. Two things follow from the guide's own wording, and only those are claimed here: at federal level the guide names absences, not a preferential scheme, and the income-tax advantage it advertises is a state choice, not a national one. The guide gives no federal income-tax bands or rates, and it does not name the nine states — so neither is stated here.

Property and state income taxes the guide does state

Property tax: 0.3–2.5% of market value by state — the guide's “Taxes (property)” line, matched exactly in the site data, which names Texas, New Jersey and Illinois as the highest. Note the base is market value in the guide's wording.

State income tax: 0–13.3%, with nine states having none, plus local tax in some cities — the guide's “Taxes (income, local)” line. It gives no per-state table, so this page publishes no state-by-state rates.

For land context, the numbers page prices rural land at $3,000–6,000 for average farmland, from $500 in the West to $15,000-plus in the Northeast. The currency needs no conversion: $1 ≈ $1 (US dollar).

The other schemes the guide names

Alongside the two tax absences, the guide's schemes list is immigration-led: the EB-5 investor green card, and O-1 and NIW routes for talent, with the H-1B lottery for employer-sponsored workers. These are named without amounts, criteria or deadlines in either source, so they are flagged here as the guide's list — detailed on the Visa page — rather than described with figures this page cannot source.

Newcomers and expats: the obligations the guide actually covers

Be clear about what this guide does not do: written for people moving to the United States, it contains no filing rules for any nationality — no return, reporting, exclusion or credit detail — and the site data adds none. What the guide does, consistently, is budget and prompt for advice at the points where obligations bite:

• Before you become resident — the Luxury timeline takes “tax structuring advice before you become resident,” and the Mid-range checklist includes “tax advice taken on residency timing.”
• For retirees — a $1,800 line for tax and estate advice covering double-taxation, pension treatment and wills, plus checklist advice on your tax residency date and the pension treaty.
• Official channel listed — the guide lists the USA.gov foreign-embassies page among its official sources, and the Retirement checklist includes registering with the embassy or consulate.

That is the sourced position: take advice before residency, especially on double-taxation and pension treatment. Anything more specific about filing obligations would be unsourced here.

Legal and residency basics, with the official sources

The guide's official-law entry point is the U.S. Code via Cornell LII, listed with its URL in the guide and the site data, with the guide's own caution that state laws vary; the site data also links a Wikipedia law overview from the country page. Everyday legal basics the guide does state: the United States drives on the right, university is not free (in-state public about $11k a year, out-of-state $30k, private $45–65k a year), and after a move the settle stage includes registering your address and opening a bank account. For retirees, the checklist adds preparing a local will and power of attorney. The guide's own closing disclaimer applies to this whole page: figures were current at publication in 2026, tax rules and visa schemes change, and the guide is not legal, immigration or financial advice — verify against the official sources before you rely on them.

Frequently asked questions

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