Joe Rogan’s Move to Texas Is Going To Save Him Millions of Dollars
While many people will probably live the rest of their lives trying to forget the year 2020, there were some celebrities that actually ended up having a pretty good year. This is especially true for Joe Rogan who signed a massive deal with Spotify.
The new deal means that his podcast will now have more restrictions, however, it also comes with a much bigger paycheck. Rogan also recently decided to move from LA to Texas where he now lives in a large estate that cost over $14 million. While Rogan says that he ended up leaving California for a wide range of reasons, many fans speculate that the real reason he left was to get out of having to pay higher taxes.
Joe Rogan’s new Spotify deal
Rogan started his podcast, The Joe Rogan Experience back in 2009. Almost immediately, his show had a large fan base, and for the next decade, it ranked as one of the highest-rated podcast on Apple’s top 100 podcast list.
One of the things that people love about Rogan’s podcast is the fact that he is not afraid to invite controversial guests onto his show and talk about stigmatized topics. For a while, it seemed as if nothing was off-limits on his show.
This is why many long-time fans of the show were surprised and upset when they heard that he agreed to have The Rogan Experience play exclusively on Spotify. The new deal meant that Rogan would now be $100 million richer.
However, it also means that his new show will be censored. According to The Diamondback, the employees at Spotify held a meeting to voice their concerns over the controversial topics and language that are used in his shows. And, after the show finally did debut on Spotify, many fans noticed that there were several previous shows that had been missing from the catalog.
Why did Joe Rogan choose to move to Texas?
As Newsweek reports, back in July, Rogan announced that he would be moving out of his home in LA and relocating to Texas. On his podcast, Rogan proudly announced “I’m outta here, I’m gonna go to Texas.”
When discussing the reasons for leaving, Rogan, said, “I just want to go somewhere in the center of the country, somewhere it’s easier to travel to both places, and somewhere where you can have a little more freedom.”
However, he also noted that the ongoing pandemic was also to blame for the sudden need to relocate. “Also I think that where we live right here in LA is overcrowded. And I think, most of the time that’s not a problem,” Rogan said. “But I think it’s exposing the fact that it’s a real issue when you look at the number of people that uh, are catching COVID because of this overpopulation issue.”
While the reasons that Rogan listed for leaving seem reasonable, many fans think that his new multi-million dollar Spotify deal may be the real motivation for leaving.
While living in California, Rogan will be required to pay 13.3 percent in state income taxes. With his new $100 million deal, that means that he would have to pay over $13 million in income taxes. However, in Texas, individuals are not required to pay state income taxes, which means he would be able to save a lot of money each year.
Joe Rogan is not the first celebrity to leave California because of high tax rates
If Rogan did decide to leave due to California’s tax rates, he certainly wouldn’t be the first person to move out of the state for this reason. Several celebrities have chosen to leave California this year. And legendary KISS frontman, Gene Simmons, told The Wall Street Journal earlier this year that he and his family were planning on selling their L.A. mansion to move to Washington, where he would no longer have to pay state income taxes.
“California and Beverly Hills have been treating folks that create jobs very badly and the tax rates are unacceptable,” Simmons said. “I work hard and pay my taxes and I don’t want to cry the Beverly Hills blues, but enough is enough.”
Simmons currently has his LA home — where he and his family lived for 36 years — listed for sale for $22 million. And as California’s income tax rates continue to increase, the number of celebrities that choose to move out of the state will more than likely increase as well.
