Posted on 09/30/2011 3:46:09 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
When Irish rockers U2 took to the main stage at this year's Glastonbury music festival, a small but vocal group of activists raised a large balloon emblazoned with the words "U Pay Tax 2?"
Most people in the 60,000-strong crowd barely noticed the stunt on a rain-lashed night, but the world's media latched on to the protest and gave it prominent mention in their reports of the eagerly awaited performance by one of rock and roll's biggest acts.
Years ago the band transferred some of its assets from Ireland to the Netherlands, as did members of the Rolling Stones, prompting the New York Times to label the Netherlands "The New Tax Shelter Hot Spot."
U2's music triumphed on that muddy June night, but the tax habits of the world's super-rich have since become a hot topic.
Cash-strapped western governments are on the offensive against their own elites. Wealth taxes are up, loopholes are being closed and crackdowns on offshore havens and Swiss bank accounts are gaining momentum.
"Flogging the rich always becomes a national sport in times of crisis," says Catherine Tillotson, managing partner at consultancy Scorpio Partnership.
Some super-rich are volunteering funds: billionaires Warren Buffett and L'Oreal SA heiress Liliane Bettencourt recently made statements offering to shoulder more of the tax burden.
In the United States, President Barack Obama has called for a new minimum tax called the "Buffett Rule" for American households that make more than $1 million annually. A recent USA Today/Gallup poll showed 66 percent of Americans support increasing income taxes for wealthy individuals.
Proposed changes to the U.S. tax code may not materialize soon -- the proposal is a "political statement and not a serious legislative proposal," said Scott A. Hodge, president of Washington-based research group the Tax Foundation.
(Excerpt) Read more at realclearmarkets.com ...
NOTE FOR THE WEALTHY AMONG YOU WHO THINK THAT RENOUNCING US CITIZENSHIP CAN HELP YOU SAVE YOUR WEALTH:
U.S. citizens are liable to U.S. tax wherever they are in the world, making it virtually impossible for them to become legal tax exiles — a possibility open to Europeans, many of whom have set up home in tax havens like Monaco and Britain’s Channel Islands.
Americans cannot even escape these obligations by renouncing their citizenship, says Sydney E. Unger, a partner in the tax department of New York law firm Kaye Scholer LLP.
“If you want to renounce...you have to file tax returns for (the) last five years, and there is now an imposed exit tax. If you have a lot of assets, you have to pay tax on them as if you had sold them,” he said.
It’s a communist thing.
Free nations do not do things like this to their citizens - this is North Korea stuff. Ask your friendly neighborhood Republican where he or she was when these rules got changed.
15 years ago when I looked into it (not seriously, just happened to be living overseas) you were liable for US income taxes (whatever country the source) for 10 YEARS after your renunciation of citizenship.
The Hotel Taxus Americanus - you can check out, but you can never leave.
RE: Free nations do not do things like this to their citizens - this is North Korea stuff.
Do you still believe that we are the “land of the free” as you sing the National Anthem?
It appears we are no longer free citizens of the US but owned by the US.
The government has considered the people as its asset for a long time.
the IRS are domestic terrorists
Some of us are assets, some of us are liabilities.
This country only got rid of one type of slavery. The government maintains a monopoly on the other.
So the moral to the story is renounce your citizenship when you are young and have no assets to tax.
The IRS are an extension of we the people. We vote for the people in Congress who created the IRS.
In a sense, we did this to ourselves. We have met the enemy and he is us.
RE: So the moral to the story is renounce your citizenship when you are young and have no assets to tax.
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Actually, being a US citizen MIGHT COST YOU if for some reason, you happened to have gained wealth unexpectedly by inheritance overseas ( Note the money was NEVER EARNED here ).
NOTE THIS CASE FROM A LAWYER IN THE ARTICLE:
His client had inherited a $2 million account from a relative who had left Europe after surviving the Holocaust, and received a letter from UBS saying that as part of an investigation, the bank might release the names of U.S.-based account holders. That client ended up with a reduced penalty of 5 percent, or about $100,000, rather than the 20-25 percent typically charged.
“You can never say he’s happy about that penalty,” said Unger. “He came to the conclusion that these were the rules. He had an account at UBS. He didn’t know if his name would be turned in. He wanted to clear things up and go forward with his life.”
In other words, you get marked to market, unlike, say, a bank... or the Fed.
Everyone knows that the 21st amendment repealed the 18th. Not so many realize that the 16th amendment repealed the 13th.
“Exit tax.” Just like the nazis imposed on the jews who were trying to flee Germany.
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