Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Are Taxes Causing the Rich to Renounce Their Citizenship?
The Wall Street Journal ^ | Jun 13, 2011 | Robert Frank

Posted on 06/15/2011 8:43:24 AM PDT by arderkrag

According to the latest Internal Revenue Service report, the number of Americans renouncing their U.S. citizenship (or terminating their long-term permanent residency) has increased nearly ninefold since 2008.

In the first quarter alone, 499 Americans expatriated through the IRS, meaning they probably won’t have to pay U.S. taxes anymore, according to data that first appeared on Andrew Mitchel’s International Tax Blog. That compares with a quarterly average of 384 in 2010. And 2010 marked a significant jump from 2009 and 2008, with quarterly averages of 186 and 58, respectively.

-----SNIP----- One argument is that they are leaving because of President Obama and the nation’s leaders.

“There is growing concern, particularly among the wealthy, about the future financial direction of the country,” said Paul L. Caron, Charles Hartsock Professor of Law at the University of Cincinnati College of Law. “This President constantly demonizes the wealthy, who undoubtedly are concerned about the tax policy that would emerge in 2012 if a re-elected Barack Obama, unconstrained by re-election concerns, finally confronts the budgetary train wreck that he has done so much to exacerbate.”

(Excerpt) Read more at blogs.wsj.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Constitution/Conservatism; Culture/Society; Front Page News
KEYWORDS: citizen; expatriate; nobama2012; obama; rich; taxes; taxtherich
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-6061-66 next last
To: ilovesarah2012

I thought Bush was supposed to make them do that.


41 posted on 06/15/2011 10:06:14 AM PDT by WakeUpAndVote
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: ansel12
Well, my background is considerably different from most. Spent most of my first 17 years in Scotland. Have lived in Canada, Burma, and the old Soviet Union (NOT recommended, btw).

When I see the US goobermint behaving increasingly like the goobermint of the former Soviet Union, with dimming prospects for reversing the situation, I am not particularly disposed to sit still while the goobermint becomes yet more corrupt and oppressive.

And, having managed to live through 3 bouts with nationalised medicine, I can inform you on the very best of authority that I **will not** tolerate another iteration of same, come 2014.

Naturally, to each his own view.

42 posted on 06/15/2011 10:06:32 AM PDT by SAJ (Zerobama -- a phony and a prick, therefore a dildo)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 34 | View Replies]

To: dools0007world

“NJ and some other states already extorting people who move out of the state.”

Do you have any details? This is scary!

What would happen if a state like California put a huge tax on leaving?


43 posted on 06/15/2011 10:12:28 AM PDT by PastorBooks
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 8 | View Replies]

To: God luvs America

Whether it’s loathsome depends somewhat on the tax rates they’re facing, don’t you think? At some high level of taxation, a wealthy person is justified in leaving, at least in my view.

I surely agree though that it is grossly hypocritical for someone to vote for far-left politicians and then flee the consequences. I just feel for the conservative well-off folks who have fought the good fight and no longer feel like paying half or more of their living income in taxes, plus a third or more of their estate.


44 posted on 06/15/2011 10:16:22 AM PDT by pogo101
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 5 | View Replies]

To: Lysandru

With apologies these people wanting to protect their wealth are not one step from the poor house. The country where they made their money is worth some extra bucks. People give a lot more for their country than money.


45 posted on 06/15/2011 10:19:52 AM PDT by ex-snook ("Above all things, truth beareth away the victory")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 35 | View Replies]

To: Lysandru

Tingle Barry is cluing you in on some of the nice places to go by attacking them out of the blue.

Look into Honduras and the Falklands.


46 posted on 06/15/2011 10:19:57 AM PDT by MrEdd (Heck? Geewhiz Cripes, thats the place where people who don't believe in Gosh think they aint going.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 35 | View Replies]

To: arderkrag
I don't know some my relatives renounce their citizenship when they started shooting at Redcoats back in 1777
47 posted on 06/15/2011 10:23:42 AM PDT by tophat9000 (Global Warming, undeniable truth; Obama, infallible genius; Apple perfect, invented everything)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: arderkrag

I have often thought of leaving the country, renouncing my citizenship, changing my name to Juan Gonzales, sneaking back into the country in the middle of the night, sign up for every possible handout from the government, and then act like I freakin’ own the place while politicians kiss my ass and treat me like the salt of the earth.


48 posted on 06/15/2011 10:28:55 AM PDT by spodefly (This is my tag line. There are many like it, but this one is mine.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: pogo101

not really...its loathsome because they made their money here in the US- much of their opportunity would not have been available on the way up to whichever country they are leaving for after renouncing their citizenship....

i had a girlfriend whose parents who came here from italy for better opportunities...she came when she was 3- neither she nor her parents became American citizens, and all the while they took advantage of the system here all they talked about was “Italy!! Italy!!!” i told her it was disgusting and the relationship did not last ling...

my wife’s parents also came from Italy but they are proud American citizens and both went through the process, took the test and did it the right way- they raised their kids as Americans and, oh yeh, talk about italy once in a while...


49 posted on 06/15/2011 10:39:44 AM PDT by God luvs America (63.5million pay no federal income tax then vote demoKrat)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 44 | View Replies]

To: God luvs America

Sorry, I just disagree. What if they made their money in the USA and their tax rates became 80%, and/or the government

I love the USA, but I am not a slave. We in the USA were once British, but when the Crown became too oppressive, we left the Crown’s sovereignty — albeit as a group. I cannot deny an individual the same right to escape oppression, should it continue to advance in years ahead. You are welcome to remain under the yoke, secure in “patriotism.”


50 posted on 06/15/2011 11:09:02 AM PDT by pogo101
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 49 | View Replies]

To: DonaldC

Columbia? Chile? New Zealand?


51 posted on 06/15/2011 11:12:07 AM PDT by Soothesayer9
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 7 | View Replies]

To: ex-snook
People give a lot more for their country than money.

Whose country is it now though? A country that confiscates the fruits of the labors of the hard working to bestow largess on the lazy isn't what the founding fathers envisioned. ALl of the rights enumerated in the Bill of Rights are basically negative ie the right to be left alone to do you thing.

The new "rights" like the so-called "right to health care" are positive (but not in a good way) meaning that you are actually owed somthing. However if you have a right to something (healthcare welfare) then that so-called right creates an OBLIGATION for someone else to provide that for you.

Let's take health care for an example. Suppose you are found with severe liver disease, and you're black and young* so that you will be a candidate for a transplant under the new rules. Then someone has to supply a liver, and a transpant team has to do the work to install the new liver, and the hospital has to provide the space and supplies for them to do the work, and someone has to provide your anti-rejection drugs. The liver isn't free. There is a cost associated with acquiring it. The transplant team consists of a number of highly trained individuals. Are they expected to donate their time? The hospital cost money to build and run. etc. the average cost for a liver transplant is around $400,000 so the GOVERNMENT says someone OWES you $400,000 simply because you were either stupid and indulged in a lifestyle that killed your liver or you had the misfortune to contract a disease that killed yout liver.

As a taxpayer I have to cough up my share of the $400,000. Why should your misfortune be my misfortune too? WHen you were making money (if you ever did) did you share any of it with me? Nope.

If I wanted to donate to charity that would be one thing, but to rob me at gunpoint to care for you is no different than any other sort of robbery.

What is the definition of a slave? One whose labors benefit someone else without any choice in the matter. Slavery is alive and well in the USA today.

*Several years ago I was reading a publication from Hopkins hospital bemoaning the fact that the "government" didn't pay welfare mother enough to pay for all of the transplant drugs for their offspring. It cited a case of a young teen who had one liver transplant that failed because his mother wasn't given enough money to pay for the anti-rejection drugs (read she spent the money on recreational drugs for herself). he was given a second liver, and that one failed too for the same reason. They were getting ready to give him a third liver when he died and according to the hospital's publication because the government wasn't spending enough of someone else's money. Reading between the lines the kid had hep C (probably from an early atempt to inject recreational drugs - although the source of the hep C is just speculation on my part)

52 posted on 06/15/2011 11:12:12 AM PDT by from occupied ga (your own government is your most dangerous enemy)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 45 | View Replies]

To: from occupied ga
"If I wanted to donate to charity that would be one thing, but to rob me at gunpoint to care for you is no different than any other sort of robbery."

So how do you feel about the govt taxing you to help someone with say, cancer? Or some other disease that was largely unpreventable?

53 posted on 06/15/2011 11:18:16 AM PDT by Soothesayer9
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 52 | View Replies]

To: Soothesayer9
cancer? Or some other disease that was largely unpreventable?

Same way. Same way I would feel about being robbed at gunpoint because someone was hungry, because someone had dependent children, needed a fix or wanted a flat screen TV. The want or misfortune of one person should not involuntarily become the misfortune of everyone else.

54 posted on 06/15/2011 11:24:28 AM PDT by from occupied ga (your own government is your most dangerous enemy)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 53 | View Replies]

To: from occupied ga

You’re probably be peed if your house didn’t burn down but your insurance paid for some being burned to the ground. Maybe just thank God you or a family member doesn’t need any major medical remedies.


55 posted on 06/15/2011 11:36:53 AM PDT by ex-snook ("Above all things, truth beareth away the victory")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 54 | View Replies]

To: ex-snook
but your insurance paid for some being burned to the ground

The difference between insurance and government health care is profound. Insurance is a VOLUNTARY acceptance of pooled risk

Maybe just thank God you or a family member doesn’t need any major medical remedies.

What makes you think I don't have any big medical expenses? I just pay for what the insurance doesn't cover and don't expect someone else to pick up the tab. Specifically I pay for medical insurance ($2200 deductable) and 80% paid over that to insure against major contingencies. I don't expect my fellow citizens to be forced to pay for it. Anyone who relies on the "government" ie robbing his fellow citizens is guilty of receiving stolen goods. as in H. L. Mencken's quote, "Every election is an advance auction of stolen goods."

56 posted on 06/15/2011 12:16:27 PM PDT by from occupied ga (your own government is your most dangerous enemy)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 55 | View Replies]

To: ilovesarah2012

Nope, Obammy just wants you to pledge your allegiance to him


57 posted on 06/15/2011 12:18:49 PM PDT by Joe Boucher
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: arderkrag; All

I was reading the comment section on the WSJ. This problem is huge. Read what our government (IRS) is doing to our citizens working overseas. We really have become tyrannical. The U.S. & Phillipines are the only two nations in the world who tax their citizens working abroad. Our government treats our citizens working abroad as though they are criminals but we allow the illegal aliens to send money out of our economy and into Mexico.

I found this article http://www.aca.ch/joomla/images/pdfs/taxnotes.pdf

A little history behind the changes in tax law when this all began and how it affected one individual starting in 1995. Here

http://www.debito.org/naturalization2.html

Wow. Just blows me away. We are definitely living under a tyranny. Sad.


58 posted on 06/15/2011 12:53:31 PM PDT by bbernard
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: arderkrag

And thanks to our open borders, they can stay here and keep voting for liberal Democrats. :)


59 posted on 06/15/2011 1:01:35 PM PDT by Tzimisce (Never forget that the American Revolution began when the British tried to disarm the colonists.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: PastorBooks

Here’s how it works in NJ:

1. If you are under age 65 NJ extorts you for $10,000 to leave the state.

2. If you’re over 65, you pay a percent of that. In my case I paid $3,000.

When I say extort I mean it. You cannot close the sale of your home without writing a check to NJ. Don’t have my closing sheet handy, but I think it’s called an Exit Tax.

I think it was instituted by the demrat governor Florio back in the 80s. We’ve had two so-called Pubbie governors in the interim and none of them revoked the practice. But, then the NJ GOP is owned lock, stock and barrel by RINOs and therefore, by extension, the demrat party.

For me the jury is still out with Christie. None of what he’s done so far has encouraged people or businesses to stay in the Garden State. Compared to what Walker did in WI, Christie has just nibbled around the edges of the Teacher and Public Service employee union largess.


60 posted on 06/15/2011 4:45:28 PM PDT by dools0007world
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 43 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-6061-66 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson