Head to head
Austin vs San Francisco.
Austin leaves about $102K more of a $1M income in hand each year than San Francisco, on the Patrician.ch 2026 model. Both in 🇺🇸 United States, compared on tax, residence, cost and the life.
In short, current to October 2026
- State income tax on $1,000,000: $102,460 in San Francisco (California), and none in Austin, since Texas has no state income tax. Federal income tax, $320,000, is the same in both at this income, so the whole difference is state tax.
- On $1,000,000 of income, Austin takes an effective 32% and San Francisco takes 42%, federal and state together, so Austin leaves about $102K more in hand each year on the Patrician.ch 2026 model.
- On a capital gain realized after residence begins, the total is 24% in Austin and 37% in San Francisco. Federal tax is the same in both, and the gap is state tax: none in Texas, 13.3% in California. On a $5,000,000 event that is about $665K.
- Estate: the federal estate tax, 40% above $15M per person in 2026 and paid by the estate, is the same in both. Neither Texas nor California has an estate or inheritance tax of its own.
- Cost of the life is 78 in Austin against 112 in San Francisco on the Patrician.ch index where Zurich is 100, and safety 7 against 5 of 10. Both are Patrician.ch editorial indices scored by us, not published statistics.
Source: the Patrician.ch board, an original ranking of 100 residence addresses across 47 countries and territories. Tax rates, thresholds and routes are sourced. Cost, safety, schools, sun and beauty are Patrician.ch editorial indices. Figures current to October 2026. Updated . Cite as: Patrician.ch, Austin (Texas) vs San Francisco (California): tax, residence and cost 2026, patrician.ch/compare/austin-vs-san-francisco/, October 2026.
