Happy 2021 | Income Tax Battle & an Urban Migration

Disruptive Tech Webinar: In case you missed it, you can watch our most recent webinar on the latest disruptive tech with ARK Investment Management where we explore the investment opportunities associated with disruptive technology and innovations such as digital wallets, streaming media, and biotech R&D efficiency. Click here to watch.

End of Year Dip: As the holidays were in full swing, the numbers surrounding unemployment, home sales, and the like were all a little more difficult to read as indicators. Initial jobless claims were lower than expected in the last week of the year (pictured below) along with claims on regular state benefits.

The Battle for Income Tax: With the massive shift to remote work, states have begun contesting over who gets to tax whom on income tax. The question is over where one technically earns income—from the place from which they work or the place for which they work. The answer to that question is worth billions in state tax revenue. Whether the US Supreme Court will weigh in on the matter has yet to be decided.

Urban Migration: Paired to the interstate battle for income taxes is the large emigration of remote workers from major urban areas to places with lower costs of living. The chart below presents a general idea of the impact this has taken on US cities thus far.

UK Formally Departs from EU: After 48 years of participation, the United Kingdom formally departed from the European Union this past Thursday (New Year’s Eve). The agreement between London and Brussels amounted to more than 1,000 pages. The intended hope of the UK’s “Brexit” is to gain the autonomy to boost trade and more freely direct its economy. How this will affect relations between the UK and US is highly anticipated and likely to be a thread of 2021 news.

Drawing with an Airplane? As if we haven’t had enough strange news emerge from COVID, a German pilot flew 124 miles to trace a giant syringe needles in the sky as a form of campaigning for COVID vaccine awareness. All we can say is, the guy’s got serious skills.