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.
RE: No wonder that you do not understand that the act of his renouncing his American citizenship makes him scum
If so, then you have just tarred and feathered millions of Americans who renounced their former citizenships to become Americans.
That of course is a canard.
Citizens owe loyalty to their country IN SO FAR AS THEY ARE CITIZENS. There is no overarching Biblical or Moral law that tells us once you are a citizen of country X, leaving that country makes you morally a scum. That may be an invented morality in your book but I don;t see that written in any sacred book anywhere.
The founding fathers of America abandoned their old country to establish and live in a new one. They were not scum for doing that. Why then are those who leave America for another place scum? You have not explained that at all.
When they feel that their government and the system they live under no longer adheres to the principles that attracted them to become citizens in the first place, I don’t see why their leaving for what they perceive to be greener pastures makes them scum.
The history of the world is a history of migrations and changing of domiciles. I don’t see how families moving from one place to another because they feel that their life could be better off doing so, make them scum.
It could even be that people like Saverin are doing the government of America and the rest of us who choose to stay, a favor. They are, by their actions, giving a signal to the US government -— TREAT YOUR ENTREPRENEURS and JOB CREATORS WELL or you will see a flood of exodus, and with that, JOBS and wealth creation.
It is already happening in places like California and Illinois. And If the Californian philosophy of government becomes prevalent in America, I see no reason why it won’t happen on a larger scale in this country.
And oh BTW, you have not answered my question -— DO YOU SUPPORT THE EX-PATRIOT ACT. It’s a simple question that could be answered with a simple ‘yes’ or ‘no’.
RE: My point was, once a person gives up citizenship and gets their money out of the US, how do those in Congress propose to get it back?
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I don’t think they can get money from non-citizens whose money is OUTSIDE the USA. The law proposed by Schumer is only designed to PUNISH those who renounce their citizenships to avoid paying more taxes.
Let’s look at the provision of the ex-Patriot Act:
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.
Provision #1 is easy to enforce. Just don’t issue a visa to let them back in. Cruel of course, what if (God forbid), Saverin’s father or mother is in his or her deathbed? Are you going to bar him from entering the USA from seeing them?
You don’t bar known terrorists like Yaser Arafat from coming to the USA, what makes Saverin persona non-grata? What crime did he commit?
Provision #1 in effect is a warning to those who would renounce their citizenship -— YOU ARE IN EFFECT -— EXILED FROM THE USA.
Provision #2 will be a little difficult to enforce but not impossible.
If Saverin ever sells a few of his Facebook shares, and made money off it, the IRS can put him on a watch list and simply withhold 30% of the gains.
Say, Saverin sold X amount of shares and made $100 Million gain from the sell. $30 Million can be taken out immediately.
Provision #3 of course is tied to provision number 2. It would be simple matter of reprogramming the IRS computers to put all people who have left the USA ( and there are but a few thousands of them ) on a watch list for 30% capital gains confiscation.
In which case, Saverin should sell his shares now and get his money the heck out of dodge. But you are right, the point of this bill isn’t really about Saverin even if he is the scapegoat they are using to try to get it passed. This bill is directed at the rest of us. It won’t be long before they try to make it illegal to move your money outside the US.
The left has done a good job on you.
In your mind becoming an American is nothing special, is not the pinnacle, to do so is no different in evil than an American renouncing the United States.
You’ve come a long way baby.
RE: The left has done a good job on you.
Really? define “left” for me. How is NOT calling someone who exercises his right to leave the country legally a scumbag being on the side of the left?
RE: In your mind becoming an American is nothing special, is not the pinnacle, to do so is no different in evil than an American renouncing the United States.
If I believed that America was nothing special, I would have left America too. But I did not.
What makes America special is she believes in the POWER TO PERSUADE, NOT COERCE. The moment America becomes a country that REALLY TURNS LEFT ( and it slowly ) is, then it loses its “special” status.
If America is to be special, her government has to go back to its founding principles — one of which is to ENCOURAGE those willing to use their talents to work hard to pursue life, liberty and happiness to stay.
If she does not, how can she still be called special? Look at what’s happening to our government and how she is in effect pushing the bright and talented ones like Saverin away...
There is no rule in the universe that tells us that a once special country will always stay special. There is no “left” or “right” here. Only observations. We can continue to stay and fight for America to return to what she used to be, but I have to say this -— CURSING AND PUNISHING THOSE WHO LEAVE DOES NOT MAKE AMERICA ANY DIFFERENT FROM RUSSIA OR CHINA.
America is special because she values FREEDOM. Yes, even freedom for those who want to leave.
THAT is what makes the ex-Patriot Act so sinister ( and BTW, you haven’t answered my question as to whether you support it or not ).
If you support that act, then the left has done a good job ON YOU.
You are still so confused, or dishonest, that you keep talking about “leaving” the United States, rather renouncing American citizenship.
You keep pretending that someone is interfering with my right to move somewhere, post after misleading post.
RE: You are still so confused, or dishonest, that you keep talking about “leaving” the United States, rather renouncing American citizenship.
OK, let’s use the term renouncing American Citizenship, how does that change my argument?
It does not.
Millions of Americans renounce their old citizenships from everywhere. Does that make them scum?
Is the mere act of renouncing one’s citizenship (a right provided for by American law) a moral evil?
If so, why? What scripture, moral or religious doctrine tells you so?
And this is the nth time I’ve asked you ( and you have refused to answer )— DO YOU SUPPORT THE EX-PATRIOT ACT?
Take it up with your father, or perhaps visit the local American Legion hall and ask them to explain this to you.
My grandfather left HIS country, renounced his citizenship there and became an American. So yes, I took it up with him.
Is he scum too for doing what he did to his old country ( a country which he still had affection till the day he died for and would help in any way he could )?
Based on your definition, he would be scum. I resent that.
The difference is this — The country he left never made laws to PUNISH rich people for renouncing citizenship becoming Americans.
This is what the America today on the other hand, has become ... and if you would support a law like the Ex-patriot act, then America clearly is not the country it was.
That was quick, you must have used the telephone unless you still live with them, so share with us, what did he say about an American renouncing his American citizenship?
You mean a consortium of private banks that make up the Federal Reserve, which is not a government organization.
And we, our property, our labor, our very lives, are already hypothecated to them.
So what happened along the way? Your family embraced a man who revolted for a 4 cent tax, and you call such men "scumbags".
You're the one calling those that give up their citizenship for more freedom "scumbags". According to your definition Washington was a "scumbag". I think no one is a scumbag for their choice. Those who choose to stay and have their freedoms eroded are not scumbags, they just don't mind being controlled. Those who choose to move are not scumbags, they just want more freedom. Washington was not a scumbag, he fought for the principles in the Constitution.
Who said Severin is a hero? You said anyone who renounces his citizenship is a scumbag. Washington did just that.
Your the one saying our founding fathers were scumbags for renouncing their citizenship of their homeland.
Like a little kid you just made that up out of thin air.
People can move all they want, and George Washington never renounced his American citizenship.
Your own words.
No they can't. This law will make anyone pay dual taxation.
...and George Washington never renounced his American citizenship.
So a person is a scumbag unless he starts his own country?
Yes they are my words, your posts are silly, your questions are silly and childish.
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