
On Living in NJ and commuting to NYC for work (2014)
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at Income = $85,000

and $23,100 in federal itemized deductions ($5,100 contribution to 401k + $18,000 in deductible charitable donations)

State & City Taxes in NY (from http://www.arjungmenon.com/nyc-tax-calculator/?income=85000&deductions=23100&exemptions=1) are:

    NY State Tax = $3667

    NY City Tax = $2077

NJ State Tax Rates: http://www.tax-rates.org/new_jersey/income-tax

    Note: NJ offers no standard deduction + You can't deduct charitable donations, your 410k contribution and other federal itemized deductions from your NJ taxable income.

Calculating NJ State Tax (with Python):

    p = lambda amt, pc: (amt*pc)/100.0
    nj_state_tax = ( p(20, 1.40) + p(15, 1.75) + p(5, 3.5) + p(35, 5.53) + p(10, 6.37) )*1000 = 3290

NJ State Tax = $3290

Additional amount owed to NJ: NY State Tax - NJ State Tax = 3667 - 3290 = $377

Money saved by moving to NJ = NY City Tax ($2077) - 377 = 1700
    ...which translates to $142 per month

Assuming you pay for an unlmited NYC metrocard, the additional transit cost is:

    (a) Cost of PATH for one month (30 days x 2 trips = 60 trips) = $1.19 x 2 x 30 = $114

    (b) Cost of NJ Transit for one month = $116 to $139 ($116 for Secaucus-NYPenn; $139 for Newark-NYPenn)

    ...so $114 at the very minimum

Effective Savings per month = $142 - $114 = $28

So, you save about $30 per month by living in NJ and commuting to NYC.

Not worth it.

Add note on living in NJ and commuting to NYC for work
Add note on living in NJ and commuting to NYC for work
