Florida billionaire tax savings are drawing the ultrawealthy away from states including California and Washington, with Miami, Palm Beach County, and Naples emerging as the three dominant destinations, according to data from multiple sources.
Florida levies no state income tax, no capital gains tax, and no wealth tax. That combination has proved powerful enough to shift entire business empires southward.
How Florida billionaire tax savings stack up
California’s Proposition 40 would impose a one-time 5% levy on the net worth of billionaires who lived in the state after 1 January this year. Washington state residents earning at least $1 million face a flat 9.9% tax from 2028. Neither applies in Florida.
The departures of Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin from California alone could cost the proposed wealth measure an estimated $29 billion of the $100 billion it is targeting, Fortune’s Marco Quiroz-Gutierrez previously estimated.
Venture capitalist Peter Thiel also left California for Miami. Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and former Starbucks chief executive Howard Schultz both departed Washington for Florida.
Wealth taxes hit assets such as stocks, real estate, and art rather than income, as MIT Sloan notes. But it is the permanent absence of capital gains and income taxes that keeps billionaires in the state long-term.
Palm Beach County, Miami and Naples: where the money lands
Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison illustrates the financial logic most clearly. He shifted his primary residence from Hawaii to a $173 million Palm Beach County estate in spring 2023, according to Realtor.com. By establishing that estate as his primary residence before selling Oracle stock, Ellison saved an estimated $1 billion in taxes, according to Forbes.
The scale of any future saving could be substantial. CNBC reports that Ellison has entered a trading plan allowing him to sell up to 50 million Oracle shares, worth $7.5 billion at the current price, adopted on 22 June and set to end on 24 October.
Citadel founder Ken Griffin has poured about $450 million into a waterfront compound in Palm Beach County. Citadel, BlackRock, and Goldman Sachs have all expanded there, earning the area its ‘Wall Street South’ nickname. Between 2014 and 2024, West Palm Beach and Palm Beach saw their millionaire population jump 112%, the fourth-fastest growth of any city in the world, according to Henley & Partners‘ World’s Wealthiest Cities in 2025 report. The Business Development Board of Palm Beach County counts roughly 60 billionaires countywide.
Miami is where wealth migration is most visible. Nineteen of Florida’s 20 richest billionaires officially reside there. Bezos has assembled a property compound on Indian Creek Island worth more than $230 million. Page has spent more than $180 million building a compound in Coconut Grove. Miami’s millionaire population has grown 94% in a decade, to nearly 40,000, Henley & Partners found.
Naples, long a retirement destination, draws what is characterised as passive wealth: retirees and heirs who prioritise golf, privacy, and beaches. Forbes has called it the place ‘where America’s new “old money” hides,’ noting it is frequently cited as having one of the highest concentrations of millionaires per capita in the country. Jacksonville Jaguars owner Shahid Khan, worth about $13.3 billion, lives there. Two of the six priciest neighbourhoods in America by price per square foot, Port Royal and Aqualane Shores, also sit in Naples.
Ellison’s trading plan, set to expire on 24 October, will test in real time precisely how much a Florida primary residence is worth to one of the world’s wealthiest individuals.
