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Surprise: Higher taxes in Maryland chasing out the wealthy
Hotair ^ | 07/09/2012 | Erika Johnsen

Posted on 07/09/2012 5:16:22 PM PDT by SeekAndFind

In light of President Obama's exhortation to hike taxes on those making more than $250,000 a year earlier today, here's a well-timed piece of evidence demonstrating what happens when you decide you'd rather engage in populist persecution and punish the wealthy for their economic contributions rather than make tough budget-cutting decisions. A new report indicates that the state of Maryland is bleeding residents and tax revenue — an emigration likely due to the wildly blue state's recent tax hikes.

The study, by the anti-tax group Change Maryland, says that a net 31,000 residents left the state between 2007 and 2010, the tenure of a "millionaire's tax" pushed through by Gov. Martin O'Malley. The tax, which expired in 2010, in imposed a rate of 6.25 percent on incomes of more than $1 million a year.

The Change Maryland study found that the tax cost Maryland $1.7 billion in lost tax revenues. A county-by-county analysis by Change Maryland also found that the state’s wealthiest counties also had some of the largest population outflows.

In total, Maryland has added 24 new taxes or fees in recent years, Change Maryland says. Florida, which has no income-tax, has been a large recipient of Maryland's exiled wealthy.

“Maryland has reached the point of diminishing returns. We’re taxing people too much and people are voting with their feet,” said Change Maryland Chairman Larry Hogan. “Until we change our focus from tax increases to increasing the tax base, more people are simply going to leave, leading to a downward spiral of raising revenues on fewer citizens.”

Yet again, one of the United States’ laboratories-of-democracy offers us another example of the results of poor public policy; in this case, desperately clinging to tax hikes on the wealthy as a solution to your problems (which, by the way, they aren’t): Raise taxes on the entrepreneurs, business owners, inventors, innovators, movers and shakers all you want, but you can’t reasonably expect that they’ll stick around to pay ‘em. At some point, it’s going to become worthwhile for the moneymakers to jump ship. In 2011 alone, a record 1,800 individuals renounced their United States citizenship — and if that doesn’t provide a red flag about our tax code, I don’t know what does.

Here’s just one case in point that broke earlier today:

Denise Rich, the wealthy socialite and former wife of pardoned billionaire trader Marc Rich, has given up her U.S. citizenship – and, with it, much of her U.S. tax bill.

Rich, 68, a Grammy-nominated songwriter and glossy figure in Democratic and European royalty circles, renounced her American passport in November, according to her lawyer. …

By dumping her U.S. passport, Rich likely will save tens of millions of dollars or more in U.S. taxes over the long haul, tax lawyers say.



TOPICS: Business/Economy; Culture/Society; News/Current Events; US: Maryland
KEYWORDS: 2012election; duh; election2012; kenyanbornmuzzie; maryland; marylandtaxes; matylandtaxes; mittromney; omalley; taxes
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1 posted on 07/09/2012 5:16:27 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
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To: SeekAndFind

Wll if the wealthy are Dems, Maryland can keep them. If some of the wealthy are Conservatives they should consider coming to Texas


2 posted on 07/09/2012 5:18:08 PM PDT by austinaero (Obama or America - can't have both)
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To: SeekAndFind

TSTUTLC

Too Stupid To Understand The Laffer Curve


3 posted on 07/09/2012 5:20:14 PM PDT by samtheman (The Trillion Dollar ObamaCareTax definitely is a tax; just ask the US Supreme Court.)
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To: austinaero

One can move from one state to another and renounce his/her citizenship of the state ... but how does one move OUT of the USA without being called a traitor?


4 posted on 07/09/2012 5:21:01 PM PDT by SeekAndFind (bOTRT)
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To: SeekAndFind

Obama won Maryland by 26% in 2008: 62% Obama, 36% McCain. “When you spread the wealth around . . .”


5 posted on 07/09/2012 5:22:02 PM PDT by Pollster1 (Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. - Ronald Reagan)
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To: SeekAndFind

Run,rich people,run! Escape the bottomless pit that are blue states!


6 posted on 07/09/2012 5:22:14 PM PDT by Leep (Enemy of the StatistI)
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To: Leep

Oh,and don’t look back else you turn to stone!


7 posted on 07/09/2012 5:23:23 PM PDT by Leep (Enemy of the StatistI)
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To: SeekAndFind
but how does one move OUT of the USA without being called a traitor?

Easy when it's not the USA any more.

8 posted on 07/09/2012 5:23:30 PM PDT by johniegrad
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To: samtheman
Too Stupid To Understand The Laffer Curve

And that's where your premise is flawed. It's not that they don't understand it. It's that they don't care. As Baraq Obama said himself to Charlie Gibson back in 2008:

"Well, Charlie, what I've said is that I would look at raising the capital gains tax for purposes of fairness."

http://taxfoundation.org/blog/obama-and-gibson-capital-gains-tax-exchange

9 posted on 07/09/2012 5:27:01 PM PDT by Hoodat ("As for God, His way is perfect" - Psalm 18:30)
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To: SeekAndFind

Have been hearing about Denise Rich forfeiting her U.S.citizenship, but what country has she adopted, or put another way, what country would have her?

France has long been the Hollywood elite’s favorite European destination, but now that Hollande has upped income taxes for the wealthy to 78%, where’s left for a lefty girl or guy to go ?


10 posted on 07/09/2012 5:27:42 PM PDT by EDINVA
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To: SeekAndFind

Interesting to me that Maryland is sucking bilgewater despite the largess of the FedGov in that region of the country.

How many of those 66,000 SocSec peeps are in Baltimore?


11 posted on 07/09/2012 5:29:32 PM PDT by nascarnation
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To: Leep

I would be very interested to learn how many left Montgomery County, perhaps more heavily Democrat than any other county with PG county close behind. At least that’s the way it was when my wife and I lived in Anne Arundel County for several years until 1996. Are the Libruls learning something, or is that too much to hope for?


12 posted on 07/09/2012 5:30:41 PM PDT by DanMiller (Dan Miller)
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To: EDINVA

I don’t know for sure, but a lot of the Euro Formula 1 racing drivers who make big bucks live in Monaco for tax purposes.


13 posted on 07/09/2012 5:31:43 PM PDT by nascarnation
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To: Hoodat

I know some of it is in the name of “fairness”. But a lot of it really is an inability to understand the simplest and most basic of economic realities, that people aren’t going to work for nothing and that rich people aren’t going to sit in one place while all their money gets stolen.

Where are they going to get that understanding? In the government schools?


14 posted on 07/09/2012 5:31:59 PM PDT by samtheman (The Trillion Dollar ObamaCareTax definitely is a tax; just ask the US Supreme Court.)
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To: SeekAndFind
If Maryland would just directly tax the poor (instead of the "lottery" scam to extract money from the poor)and leave the "rich" alone, maybe the "poor" would move out and solve the problem.

...the deadbeats would be gone and the people who work and pay the bills would stay....

....but naaaaahhhh! the stupid Dem pols will not do something that has a chance of working....

...never forget:.......doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results is..

..well, you know...

15 posted on 07/09/2012 5:33:06 PM PDT by B.O. Plenty (Elections have consequences....)
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To: EDINVA

RE: Denise Rich forfeiting US Citizenship.

According to Reuters...

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/07/09/entertainment-us-usa-immigration-deniser-idUSBRE8680MN20120709

Rich, who was born in Worcester, Massachusetts, has Austrian citizenship through her deceased father, said Michael Heidt, a lawyer in Hollywood, Florida, who represented her in a recent lawsuit.

He said Rich had dumped her U.S. passport “so that she can be closer to her family and to Peter Cervinka, her long-time partner.” Rich’s two daughters live in London; Cervinka, a wealthy property developer, is an Austrian national. Rich plans to make London her main residence and does not intend to acquire other passports, Heidt said.

[SNIP]

Rich will escape future U.S. taxes but possibly not all current ones. In 2008, Congress imposed an expatriation tax on persons with a net worth of more than $2 million who dump their U.S. citizenship or permanent residency. Under the law, those people owe an “exit tax” on their worldwide property, computed at a fair market value the day before they leave. But tax lawyers say the tax can be reduced or avoided by structuring asset holdings through foreign annuities.

While Austria, like the United States, generally taxes its citizens on their worldwide income, it has generous tax breaks for citizens who spend half the year abroad.

In January, Rich put her 5th Avenue penthouse in New York on the market for $65 million, according to the listing agent, The Corcoran Group. New York property records show Rich acquired a 100 percent stake in the apartment, described by Corcoran as “the epitome of luxury and grandeur,” for $200,000 in 2006. Bonnie Evans, the Corcoran broker for the property, declined to discuss details.

COOK ISLANDS TRUST

The recent lawsuit against Rich was filed on behalf of Lee Goldberg, the former protector of a Cook Islands trust of which Rich is a beneficiary, in February. The case was dismissed in April, court records show.

The Cook Islands, a South Pacific tax haven, offers Swiss-style secrecy for wealthy investors.

CLICK ABOVE LINK FOR THE REST...


16 posted on 07/09/2012 5:34:00 PM PDT by SeekAndFind (bOTRT)
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To: EDINVA; nascarnation
For your Information...


17 posted on 07/09/2012 5:35:25 PM PDT by SeekAndFind (bOTRT)
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To: SeekAndFind

Boat Luxury Tax Drives an Industry Aground

Published: January 03, 1991

To the Editor:

I have been in the boat business since 1972. The luxury tax that came into effect this year is in general unfair, but as it pertains to boats, grossly so. My industry was singled out and is being crushed by this tax. This will translate into lost jobs for about 600,000 people if something is not done quickly.

The luxury tax on new boats is a cruel hoax played on the public at the expense of those who work in the industry. The United States boat industry, and the 600,000 workers employed directly in manufacturing, were served as the sacrificial lamb to appease those who insisted on soaking the rich during Federal budget negotiations.

The Treasury Department has acknowledged that the 10 percent luxury tax on boats will not produce tax revenues to help solve the budget crisis. The luxury tax revenue will not even cover the income tax revenue lost to unemployed workers and bankrupt manufacturers.


18 posted on 07/09/2012 5:35:52 PM PDT by Calusa (The pump don't work cause the vandals took the handles. Quoth Bob Dylan.)
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To: All

Problem #1. The mega rich in 1776 were the ones who lead the charge. Now they are the ones who run and hide with their wealth.

Or they are Democrat contributors who are protected by their religion “Eugenics”.


19 posted on 07/09/2012 5:40:04 PM PDT by liberty or death
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To: SeekAndFind

Not surprised.
Flight is one of our last freedoms we can truly depend upon.


20 posted on 07/09/2012 5:40:13 PM PDT by jongaltsr
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