Most film people don’t make big bucks. The great majority of SAG-AFTRA members, for example, don’t even make enough to qualify for union heath insurance. The elite get most of the press attention, but most of the working actors have other jobs, often casual jobs that give them a lot of flexibility when they do get a gig. Etc., etc., etc.
So: for the A-listers who can afford more than one home, what are California’s laws on declaring an out of state address as a primary residence? Does Cali try to track how many days a person is actually in Cali? Does it track where a person actually works? That could be huge since movies get made all over the place.
For those not in the big bucks range, what is possible if someone owns a house in California but has a plausible anchor address elsewhere? In the age of zoom meetings, people aren’t as tied to place as they used to be. I imagine it is still useful to be on the scene for casual networking, but as the industry gradually (rapidly) continues to disperse, at some point the Southern California critical mass will dwindle in importance.
New York has always been the secondary hub of the U.S. film industry, but you don’t have to live in NYC tax hell to have access to that. Similarly, you can live in Las Vegas or Phoenix or various other places in Nevada, Arizona, or the desert and mountain west and be within relatively easy range. Nashville has a lot of film celebrities — it always has had a lot of celebs because of the country music nexus — and Nashville seems to keep things very much on the QT. Atlanta is emerging as a major hub. There are probably other clusters forming elsewhere — as is happening in tech, which is another industry that will probably desert California at some point. There is no reason except stupidity and inertia for major tech companies to stay in Silicon Valley, and the leakage has been going on for some time.
So what, exactly, does California tax? Property taxes can’t be avoided, but as for income taxes, does Cali tax a pro rata share based on days in residence? Days actually worked in state? Does Cali require movie people to wear ankle tags to trace their movements?