IRS Data: More Americans are relocating to Texas
Texas is a hot spot for relocation, according to migration data from the Internal Revenue Service.
The report provides estimates of residential movement between counties and states based on the number of claimed exemptions on IRS income tax forms.
“The business community throughout the United States is in love with Texas for one primary reason: there is no state personal income tax,” UTEP Economics Professor Tom Fullerton said.
The Lone Star State led the entire country with a net domestic migration of 229,300 in between 2013-14.
This is more than double the net domestic migration of second-ranked Florida and exceeds the total net domestic migration of the other 16 states that experienced an increase in population. California, with one of the highest state income taxes in the county, lost nearly 60,000 residents during that same time period.
The District of Columbia and 30 states experienced net domestic losses between 2013 and 2014.
“If the New Mexico Spacesport ever takes off and Ft. Bliss continues to expand, that’s going to likely have a mutually reinforcing upward spiral associated with it, and it could kick (El Paso’s) regional economy into overdrive,” Fullerton said.
Fullerton said El Paso and UTEP stand to benefit from Texas’ appeal to the rest of the nation. UTEP, the professor said, is gaining attention from professionals all over the country. ” Any time there is a job opening at UTEP, all of the job openings get bombarded with literally hundreds of job applications,” Fullerton said.
