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(European) Progressive ‘Exit Taxes’ become the new Berlin Wall
American Thinker ^ | July 10, 2025 | Olivia Murray

Posted on 07/10/2025 6:00:39 PM PDT by E. Pluribus Unum

As reported by Blackout News and then Climate Depot, European nations like Germany, Norway, and Belgium are “spearheading new regulations designed to tax capital gains before individuals emigrate.”

For context, these three nations already have some of the highest taxation rates in the world. When you look at personal income tax rates, Germany’s top bracket is 47.5%, Norway’s is 39.6%, and Belgium’s is 53.5%. (Out of 36 European nations, Germany ranks 12th highest, Norway 19th highest and Belgium fifth highest.) And, hitting those top tax brackets isn’t just for the jetset elites. In Belgium, once your income reaches €48,320, you’re in the top bracket. Converted to American dollars, that means if you’re making $56,492.36, you’d be left with $26.271.95 after paying $30,223.41 in federal taxes. (Of course, this doesn’t include all the other taxes, fines, and fees that citizens pay.)

“Taxes are what we pay to live in a civilized society” they say. But what do places like Germany, Norway, and Belgium have to show for it?

Energy prices are through the roof. Germany and Belgium fall in the top ten list of countries with most expensive electricity costs. In March of 2021, journalist Elisabeth Zimmerman reported this:

On February 15, as temperatures plunged well below zero, snow and frost covered large parts of Europe and the homeless froze to death on the streets, the German Federal Statistics Office reported that more than 2 million people in Germany were freezing in their homes because they were too poor to heat them.

And, here’s what Zimmerman had to say about how this is even possible in one of the world’s “richest” nations:

The fact that millions of people in one of the world’s richest countries cannot afford heating is the result of the policies of governments over the past decades.


(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...


TOPICS: European Union; Foreign Affairs
KEYWORDS: europeanunion

1 posted on 07/10/2025 6:00:39 PM PDT by E. Pluribus Unum
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

Governor Celeste of Ohio tried an exit tax for companies that left Ohio (often for the less-unionized Southern states). Companies were required to leave 6 months wages when they closed, supposedly to cover unemployment compensation and retraining costs. After about six months, some genius noticed that there were no new business formations in Ohio since the bill passed. Well, duh...

To their credit, they quickly repealed the law.


2 posted on 07/10/2025 6:07:59 PM PDT by econjack
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

later


3 posted on 07/10/2025 6:23:48 PM PDT by Gay State Conservative (Import The Third World,Become The Third World)
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

As opposed to Europe, here in the US the people are supposedly the sovereign.


4 posted on 07/10/2025 6:36:29 PM PDT by Jacquerie (ArticleVBlog.com)
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

What’s the big deal. Nothing new here. The in Germans started the Reichsfluchtsteuer program in 1931 prior to the Nazis, but the Nazis made use of it later in the 1930s assessing Jews who wanted to leave the greater German Reich (although the Nazis did mitigate it somewhat by entering into the Haavara Agreement which allowed the transfer of some assets to the British Mandate of Palestine.)

In any event, Himmler would probably be proud of how one of his tools has been put to use.


5 posted on 07/10/2025 6:57:10 PM PDT by PAR35
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

…..and with the EU’s upping their 5 percent Nato stakes,taxes will likely get worse…..and Vlad says checkmate. Best they resolve their Ukrainian differences and get back to trade and commerce, nothing beats Vlads cheap energy and commodities….as we have been witnessing.


6 posted on 07/10/2025 7:14:20 PM PDT by delta7
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To: econjack

Yup—while the politicians are focusing on people leaving they are not paying attention to the people who decide not to move there or do business there.

The average citizen has much longer time horizons than politicians.


7 posted on 07/10/2025 7:17:49 PM PDT by cgbg (It was not us. It was them--all along.)
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

>The fact that millions of people in one of the world’s richest countries cannot afford heating is the result of the policies of governments over the past decades.

This is what Watermelon Greens bring you.


8 posted on 07/10/2025 7:27:15 PM PDT by FreedomPoster (Islam delenda est)
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To: Jacquerie

The US has imposed an “expatriation tax” for many years. It prevents people from packing up and leaving large tax obligations to the federal and state governments. https://www.irs.gov/individuals/international-taxpayers/expatriation-tax


9 posted on 07/10/2025 7:44:18 PM PDT by Bob Wills is still the king
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To: E. Pluribus Unum
In Belgium, once your income reaches €48,320, you’re in the top bracket. Converted to American dollars, that means if you’re making $56,492.36, you’d be left with $26.271.95 after paying $30,223.41 in federal taxes.

Am certainly no friend of high taxes - but the author is either ignorantly or willfully misrepresenting what are actually marginal tax rates.

Thus, Belgium’s top rate of 53.5% applies only to that portion of one's income exceeding €48,320. The same applies to the situation in Germany (where it is referred to as the Grenzsteuersatz).

So, if in Belgium you earned, say, €48,321, you will be expected to pay the top tax rate of 53.5% only on that one additional Euro you earned. The rest of your income will be taxed at various different lower tax rates. (For example, the first €10,000 might be completely tax-free, the next €10,000 might be taxed at some nominal rate like 10%, and so on.)

The author's math in the above example is correct - but is based upon the flawed premise that the top tax rate is applied to one's entire income.

FAIL!

Regards,

10 posted on 07/10/2025 11:11:55 PM PDT by alexander_busek (Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.)
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To: delta7; E. Pluribus Unum
[...] and Vlad says checkmate. Best they resolve their Ukrainian differences and get back to trade and commerce, nothing beats Vlads cheap energy and commodities [...]

Leave it to a Putin-fan like you to barge into a thread about W. European tax rates and attempt to hijack the discussion with blatant appeasement propaganda.

We already know you salivate at the thought of Putler invading peaceful neighboring countries, rocket-bombing their communities, and stealing their land! Give it a rest, already!

Regards,

11 posted on 07/10/2025 11:19:59 PM PDT by alexander_busek (Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.)
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To: alexander_busek

Fact is the EU war on Russia will/ is raising the tax burden on member states. The EU is now more likely to collapse from absurd taxation than from anything Vlad will do.


12 posted on 07/11/2025 4:39:08 AM PDT by delta7
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