Posted on 05/22/2012 11:30:21 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
This week, the universally stupid brainchild of US Senators Chuck Schumer and Bob Casey known as the Ex-PATRIOT Act inched a bit closer towards becoming law.
‘Ex-PATRIOT’ is an absurd acronym that stands for “Expatriation Prevention by Abolishing Tax-Related Incentives for Offshore Tenancy”. I call it the Tax Slave Act… and it proposes three key provisions:
1) Individuals who are deemed, in the sole discretion of the US government, to have renounced US citizenship in order to avoid US taxes, will be permanently barred from re-entering the United States.
2) Such individuals will also be required to pay a 30% capital gains tax to the United States government on ALL future investment gains derived from the US. Currently, non-citizens who do not reside in the US pay no US capital gains tax.
3) These proposals are RETROACTIVE, and, if passed, would apply to anyone who renounced his/her citizenship within the last 10-years.
During a Sunday interview with ABC News, House Speaker John Boehner threw his support behind the bill… certainly a big step towards its eventual passage.
Let’s pause briefly for a little history lesson–
Dart Container Corporation was founded in 1960 by William F. Dart, the man who first perfected the design of styrofoam. Dart Container is today a multi-billion dollar family-owned company with thousands of employees and operations around the world.
In the early 1990s, brothers Kenneth and Robert Dart, heirs to the family fortune, renounced their US citizenship and became citizens of Belize and Ireland, and set up residency in the Cayman Islands.
Around the same time, several other wealthy Americans renounced citizenship, including Carnival Cruise Lines founder Ted Arison (who obtained Israeli citizenship), Campbell Soup heir John Dorrance (Irish citizenship), and fund manager Mark Mobius (German citizenship).
President Clinton was furious, and in 1996, he pushed Congress to pass a series of financial penalties for people who renounce citizenship. At the time, a ‘renunciant’ had to continue filing US tax returns for 10-years after renouncing.
Effectively, though, this penalty was a tax on worldwide income, not an exit tax on assets.
Fast forward to the mid-2000s, a time when the asset bubble was at its peak; the stock market was at its all-time high and real estate prices kept going up.
The Bush regime passed a series of changes to expatriation rules, dropping the income tax filing requirements in lieu of charging a one-time exit tax on assets.
In this way, the government was able to derive a much larger payment up front based on total assets rather than chasing around a former citizen for a piece of annual income.
In the years since the exit tax on assets was established, two things have happened:
1) The number of Americans renouncing US citizenship has risen steadily, from 235 people in 2008 to 1,780 last year (according to Schumer’s office).
2) The asset bubble has burst, and assets are worth much less than just a few years ago. As such, the government isn’t collecting as much revenue from the exit tax.
My sense is that the government has been watching the number of expatriates rise over the years, and simultaneously watching the value of the exit tax fall… and they’ve been looking for an excuse to make sweeping (i.e. retroactive) changes.
Eduardo Saverin is the perfect excuse. The Facebook co-founder’s recent renunciation of US citizenship has become a rallying cry for politicians to go back in time and steal money from former citizens retroactively…plus establish a larger base for future tax revenues.
This is a truly despicable thing to do considering that these former citizens followed the appropriate rules at the time, paid the tax, and moved on with their lives. Now Uncle Sam wants to go back in time to unilaterally change the deal, and expect everyone to abide even though they’re not even citizens anymore. The arrogance is overwhelming.
More importantly, this bill is also a major deterrent for people who are thinking about renouncing US citizenship today.
The passage of this law will undoubtedly cause many people who were considering expatriation to abandon the idea altogether as the thought of being permanently barred from entry is too much to bear.
It’s truly extraordinary that the Land of the Free has deteriorated to the point that the government must now resort to threats, coercion, and intimidation in order to keep its most productive citizens inside.
Renouncing American citizenship is now cheered by patriotic conservatives?
Beam me up Scotty.
What do you think of retired NY public employees fleeing to FL to avoid onerous taxation?
A conservative is loyal to CONSERVATIVE PRINCIPLES. Such principles transcend the governments of ANY COUNTRY ( and the United States government is NOT exempt ).
One essential principle is this — Your property, lawfully acquired through talent and hard work, belongs to you regardless of whether you are a foreigner, a resident or citizen.
When government becomes CONFISCATORY, I see no reason why someone should not follow what the founding fathers did by peacefully renouncing their ties with their government, if and when they see that it is becoming more and more totalitarian.
Now, you can argue that the better course is for a conservative to FIGHT the government AS AN AMERICAN ( that would be my personal preference ). But I certainly would not call these people who leave, scum.
And I certainly would not support a confiscatory government BECOMING MORE CONFISCATORY by creating ex post facto laws targeting former citizens trying to protect their lawfully acquired wealth. That would be supporting BIGGER and MORE FAR REACHING and eventually MORE TOTALITARIAN government.
THAT would NOT be conservative by any stretch of the imagination.
A Conservative government would create and environment that ENCOURAGES wealth creators to STAY, not COERCIVE laws that create BIGGER GOVERNMENT like the Ex-Patriot Act.
“These are the most disgusting form of foreign scum, not Americans.”
Do you know any of the history of the United States?
What in the world does that bizarre question have to do with some scum bag traitor renouncing his American citizenship?
RE: What do you think of retired NY public employees fleeing to FL to avoid onerous taxation?
___________________________
Well, they would be considered TRAITORS to New York (there for, New York Scum), since they were former citizens of the Empire State (that is, if we follow the logic of some people).
Hey, you are trying to sell me on renouncing your citizenship as patriotic, then do it yourself, personally, I’m still an American.
RE: some scum bag traitor renouncing his American citizenship?
Again, explain to us WHY they are scum bags?
Was George Washington a scum bag for being disloyal and fighting against his King and country?
FREEDOM is a RIGHT, NOT A PRIVILEGE you owe to the government.
Demanding that people be “grateful” to the US Government for not having their freedom violated so much is morally obscene.
In any case, the freedom that wealth creators like Eduardo Saverin enjoyed in this country was the result not of the government (which would happily expand to totalitarian dimensions if it could) or of the ruling class (ditto), but of many generations of citizens working to restrain both. So asking Saverin to feel grateful to the government, and surrender his money to it, is like asking a patient to be grateful to a virus because, thanks to inoculations, he doesn’t suffer too badly from it.
Comparing moving from one state to another with renouncing American citizenship, shows how out of touch you are on this goofball scum bag, and his traitorous act.
I feel like I need to visit a veterans hall to get the stench off me from this rejection of patriotism.
RE: Hey, you are trying to sell me on renouncing your citizenship as patriotic, then do it yourself, personally, I’m still an American.
You seem to have missed a key sentence in my post #43 above. Please RE-READ it and UNDERSTAND my personal preference. I am not going to renounce my citizenship ( I prefer to fight a totalitarian government AT HOME ).
I am simply questioning your use of the word “scumbag” to describe, peaceful, law-abiding ex-citizens who follow our laws to renounce their citizenships.
RE: Comparing moving from one state to another with renouncing American citizenship, shows how out of touch you are on this goofball scum bag, and his traitorous act.
Hey the principle is still the same. Why is leaving New York not an act of disloyalty to the state?
And why are men like George Washington not traitors in your view?
You and I are two different types of people.
George Washington is my George Washington, the father of my country.
Eduardo Luiz Saverin is your George Washington, for renouncing America, and tearing up his citizenship, i call him anti-American scum.
I assumed you wouldn’t answer. I was right.
Really? Now you want to portray Washington as a traitor to the United States, to me, to my family that fought with him?
You have already compared the scum bag Brazilian to Washington.
When this country finally transitions from it's current state of soft tyranny to the more historic version, "America" will count on true "patriots" as the "rejectionists" are lined up against the wall.
You must be pretty thick, I did answer.
Your question was ridiculous, comparing moving around freely as Americans always have and freely do without a second thought, to renouncing American citizenship, is beyond goofy.
So, what is your opinion of retired NY public employees fleeing to FL to avoid onerous taxation?
Thank you for supporting my point, Eduardo Luiz Saverin won't be there, he doesn't have a dog in this hunt, and never did, the man is just international scum.
Really, you think moving to Florida is the same as renouncing American citizenship? How about moving to Ohio or California?
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