You have not seen anything yet. The rats will be desperate for tax revenues when the humongous tax increase does not generate the anticipated revenue. The rats will unleash the IRS with vicious intent. Capital will flee to countries with economic freedom.
For the super rich, movement of assets and relocation is not difficult. For the reasonably wealthy, it seems that relocation and movement of assets is not easy. If the situation here gets bad enough, I may consider relocation for retirement. I really like this country and lifestyle so it would be very difficult for me to leave.
Set up a company in Hong Kong - tax free if your income is NOT made in HK. Then move to the Philippines. Great place to live, low cost, and your income can be tax free.
Setting up an HK company - with an HK bank account and nominee shareholder and director - is around $1500, and $500 each year thereafter. Use a nice, international bank like HSBC and you can access your funds anywhere in the world. And because you used nominee shareholders and directors, your name doesn’t show up on any government-filed paperwork.
Move money and income to the HK company - you’re now a consultant for them, and have management fees to pay your HK company. Sure, you earn $6,000 per month, but your HK firm you work for charges you $5500 in management fees. So you can send $5500 overseas as a professional fee, meaning you can do it with pre-tax dollars. This gets your money overseas.
Then sell your house and car to your company, getting the cash and depositing it into your HSBC account, tax free. Foreign ownership of your own property. It’s not yours, it’s a company in HK who owns it, and you lease it from them for the ongoing money you send to them.
The cost and difficulty to move your assets overseas is very low today, and anyone with any significant net worth (like a house) should consider it. The tax man really has limited bite if you have no assets to levy or lien against.
And your taxes are greatly simplified to start with - a sole proprietor filing a 1040 EZ. Allowable deductions such as professional fees mean you get to deduct most of your income since you pay it overseas.
I hate to be fatalistic, but I don’t see our government getting smaller ,maybe brief periods of slowing down, but never actually getting smaller.
In 30 years:
Can you imagine that we will NOT have government provided health care?
Can you imagine us NOT having a “progressive” (soak the middle and upper classes) tax system?
Can you imagine people NOT being arrested for saying something that is deemed as not politically correct?
We are just spiraling down the toilet bowl of socialism.