Offshore Opponent's Secret Offshore Adventures (Charlie Rangel alert)

Bob Bauman blog: That's the Way It Looks From Here ^ | September 12, 2008 | Bob Bauman

[SeattleTiger]

Excerpt from article (since I am not sure what the reprint rules are
... [Rangel] slipped this horrendous tax into a popular military and veterans pension/pay bill, (without hearings or public notice) and on June 4, 2008, President Bush, not wanting to upset the veterans' lobby, signed it into law.

The Rangel exit tax presumes that anyone who ends his or her U.S. citizenship and; (1) who paid more than $124,000 in net taxes for the previous five years, or (2) has a net worth of more than $2 million, is a tax traitor who did so with the intent to avoid paying taxes. No proof of intent is required. With some variations, the tax is about 50% of the value of all the expatriate's assets wherever located.

[SeattleTiger]

Charlie Rangel got a 50% exit tax signed into law in June. If you move out of the U.S. and have a net worth of over two million dollars, you are required to pay a capital tax of up to 50%. The article reveals Rangel has his own offshore properties he is not paying taxes on and expounds on his hypocrisy, but I am still dumbfounded by the law.

I love the United States and I don't ever plan on leaving it. However, this tax is something I'd expect to see in Russia or Cuba, not here.

[killjoy]

If you move out of the U.S. and have a net worth...

It is if you renounce your citizenship to avoid paying taxes. Moving outside the US has nothing to do with it.

[Oldexpat]

The exit tax is a form of currency control. You can’t take it with you. This is a type of banana republic action that will cause investors to stay away and devalue US assets..as well as drive down the dollar further.
Of course, many people will find a way around it. Cash and checks can flow out just the same way drugs and illegals come in. This is bad law and bad policy.

[pepsionice]

Behind all of this...you have to wonder what special interest group came to Rangel...discussed this tax....and convinced him to write it in the fashion suggested? I would suggest that some group has another special law in effect....that goes hand in hand with Rangel’s law....to herd all of these poor rich folks into one cow-path....to their front door....to help arrange a special exception. Thats the only way that you’d make lots of money off this effort.

As for comprehending taxes and their impact....Rangel would be the last guy on earth who would comprehend tax code.

[mo]

“Rangel would be the last guy on earth who would comprehend tax code.....”

OTH, you could argue he knows EXACTLY how the tax code works.....works for him...you see, he just threw the IRS and the Feds a big juicy bone to gnaw on..while he scuttles about under the radar....

[MarkeyD]

Wonder if Susan Sarandon knows about this?

[billhilly]

This is the first I have heard of Bob Bauman since he left congress in disgrace after picking up men in a Washington, D.C. Bus station. Being a republican, and a contemporary of Barney Frank, he resigned his house seat and returned to his home on Maryland’s Eastern Shore.

Barney, on the other hand..............., has a wedding band.

[Hop A Long Cassidy]

>>>It is if you renounce your citizenship to avoid paying taxes. Moving outside the US has nothing to do with it.

Have you read the text? It is my understanding that simply meeting these conditions AND expatriating to a lower tax country triggers the presumption that one is avoiding taxes.

Otherwise, who would decide? The IRS?