>>2. Salaries in Canada are vastly lower than San Francisco / Silicon Valley salaries.
This, so much this.
As a Canadian (living in Edmonton, AB moving to CA in a few days) the difference in pay is simply staggering. Since a lot of our prices are CAD/USD exchange adjusted (essentially buying, for example, a GTX 1080 is the same in USD, but costs "300" dollars more in here) the difference is compounded even further. Its not unheard of making 2-3x in the Valley compared to what you make up North. So then the tax situation becomes moot, because we're talking about the amount of cash that you take home which after all the taxes, and even the living expenses, is still significantly higher.
This, so much this. As a Canadian (living in Edmonton, AB moving to CA in a few days) the difference in pay is simply staggering. Since a lot of our prices are CAD/USD exchange adjusted (essentially buying, for example, a GTX 1080 is the same in USD, but costs "300" dollars more in here) the difference is compounded even further. Its not unheard of making 2-3x in the Valley compared to what you make up North. So then the tax situation becomes moot, because we're talking about the amount of cash that you take home which after all the taxes, and even the living expenses, is still significantly higher.