Retiring? Why You Might Want To Move From Maryland

Maryland residents love to complain about high taxes, and a new ranking of best states to retire to hammers the Free State for its hefty tax bill. 

Maryland is listed among the worst states to retire by BankRate.com, while South Dakota was ranked as the best place to stretch retirement dollars.

Mary Bare, who is recently retired, and her husband are selling their Westminster area home — heading to North Carolina to retire rather than staying in the state where they raised their six children.

“It’s a lot cheaper down there. We can sell our house here and get a 10-acre farm or 15-acre for what we’d sell a quarter acre for,” Bare tells WJZ TV.

The Bankrate.com study ranks Maryland the ninth worst state to retire. It’s blamed in part on the high cost of living here – the 11th highest of any state in the country.

Also to blame is Maryland’s higher tax burden–the seventh highest in the country–where state and local taxes combined can eat up as much as 10.6 percent of a person’s income.

Retirement planners like Diane Morley, The New Wealth LLC, say for some clients, Maryland taxes – including the estate tax and pension tax – make leaving more attractive.

“Up and down the East Coast, other states do not have the retirement pensions tax, so that makes a big difference,” Morley told the TV station.

The No. 1 worst state to retire in is New York with its high taxes.