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: You have already compared the scum bag Brazilian to Washington.
In a sense Washington was even more of a traitor and scumbag ( if I take your point of view ).
He directed men to KILL the soldiers of his own country while Saverin simply followed the laws in the books that were available for men like him.
So yes, it IS relevant to compare Washington to Saverin because of your use of the word “scumbag”.
And yes, you have done a very good job of NOT ANSWERING my question.
Why in your argument, is Washington not a traitor to his country and Saverin is?
Good point. I think Mark Levin remarked that since Plugs became El Vice Presidente, Schmuckie has top billing as the Senate’s dumbest dude.
RE: George Washington is my George Washington, the father of my country.
Therefore, I presume you APPROVE of what he did to HIS FORMER COUNTRY, and by this, I assume that you approve of people overthrowing their government when it becomes tyrannical because that’s EXACTLY what your George Washington did.
So when creating American my ancestors and George Washington fought Britain, my family also fought Germany You won’t find me saying “American?, German? the British Crown?, what’s the difference?”, and so on, George Washington helped to create the United States of America and never renounced his American citizenship.
Your comparing George Washington and your new Brazilian hero who moved to Singapore is sick, all your guy did was renounce his American citizenship, he is no George Washington.
All one needs to know to end the insanity is here:
http://www.fairtax.org/site/PageServer?pagename=about_faq
Sorry dude, I am an American, all your comparisons do not interest me, I am an American firster, a chauvinistic American patriot I want Americans to always reject the other nations and fight for America.
Eduardo Saverin has nothing to do with any of all this, he isn’t even a Benedict Arnold, he is just an indifferent guy whose citizenship meant nothing to him.
The ansells of 1776 were calling Washington a scumbag for sure. Independence over a 4 cent tax, that’s not near the crap we’re putting up with today.
The Brazilian guy is no GW he is just some guy that got lucky enough to get a upstart out of a tech incubator and into the market. He was not born a citizen he acquired it via nationalization he has every right to give up his second citizenship should it best suit his personal needs.
Every person on earth has the natural right to freedom of movement to suit their personal needs that right is given by God. If another country has a place for that person to legally reside and they want to leave us behind that is their God given right. Are all the millions of people who immigrated here in the 18th and 19th centuries traitors to their home countries for moving here and getting American citizenship most countries require you to renounce your current passport to take an American one.
Your argument is a fallacy that Eduardo is some kind of scum he is using his God given right to movement, he owes us nothing other than the taxes he has already legally paid while a citizen here once he leaves go with God sir but never ask the USA to come rescue you should your new home go tyrannical.
RE: Sorry dude, I am an American, all your comparisons do not interest me, I am an American firster, a chauvinistic American patriot I want Americans to always reject the other nations and fight for America.
Your protestations that you are an American is NOT THE ISSUE.
Here is the issue:
WHY IS Eduardo Saverin ( in your words ), a SCUMBAG? I don’t think he is, why in your opinion, is he? And more importantly, do you support Chuck Schumer and his Ex-Patriot Act?
RE: George Washington helped to create the United States of America and never renounced his American citizenship.
Because the new nation he helped form CONFORMED to his principles. What would he have done had he loved long enough to see the nation he form degenerate into something like his old country?
RE: Your comparing George Washington and your new Brazilian hero who moved to Singapore is sick
WHY? Just as Washington abandoned his country and FOUGHT IT, Saverin abandoned his country ( but did not fight it, in fact he FOLLOWED the laws that his country PROVIDED for him ). How is Saverin a scumbag and Washington not? Your argument is INCONSISTENT to say the least.
But my argument is consistent -— Washington is NOT a scumbag, and neither is Saverin.
No,your little scum bag Eduardo Saverin is not George Washington, not any kind of a George Washington.
Your bird has flown the coop, and taken his manly self to Singapore.
If Eduardo Saverin was just some middle class working guy that had 2 passports and wanted to give up his American one because he is living under a low tax system abroad no one would care, what is so surprising is how people who claim to be conservatives are nashing at the class warfare teeth over this guy. What does it matter if he has 100,000 or 1 billion in assets that he legally and rightfully EARNED they are his assets, the citizens nor the damn fedzilla have no moral or legal rights to his personal property that is a key tenet of conservatism. F Chuck and this act it is nothing more than economic slavery and an affront to our natural right to chose who we are governed by, where we chose to reside, and with who we chose as our fellow country men. Those right are not issued by man but are given to us by our Creator the Lord God himself. Any man or groups of men attempting to infringe on those rights is in a very dangerous place to be. Our founders would not approve of this kind of law even though it would hurt them to see productive citizens leave they surly would not have infringed on a man’s right to do so.
RE: No,your little scum bag Eduardo Saverin is not George Washington, not any kind of a George Washington.
I never said he was and you are attacking a red herring. I am asking you WHY he is a scumbag for what he did and why is Washington NOT for what he did?
I also asked you if you supported Schumer’s Ex-Patriot Act.
You have thus far, NOT ANSWERED My question.
I said that Washington never renounced his American citizenship, not that he held it before it even existed.
The guy had the right to movement, he is scum for renouncing his American citizenship.
Man, I would never have predicted this anti-Americanism a few years ago.
And yes, I do have a double standard when it comes to America, it is my old fashioned patriotism and nationalism, which seems dead among some. I do not compare someone renouncing North Korean citizenship for American as a traitor, like the scum who renounces American citizenship.
Actually my family was pro-Washington, as am I, sorry about your childish statement.
If you want to renounce your American citizenship and embrace Singapore, then join your buddy, it will be just exactly like 1776, fight for Singapore!
LOL, wow!
RE:LOL, wow!
That is NOT a response to my question.
RE: If you want to renounce your American citizenship and embrace Singapore, then join your buddy, it will be just exactly like 1776, fight for Singapore!
Another red herring.
Some Americans are willing to stay and fight for the principles they believe in. Others will use the laws America provides to peacefully leave. There’s nothing WRONG or IMMORAL with the latter act.
To insinuate that Partisan Gunslinger wants to give up his citizenship simply because he believes in the right of Saverin to peacefully give up his citizenship ( as provided by American law ) is ascribing to yourself omniscience that you don’t have.
Your boy George was a bloody TRATIOR a real traitor one that waged war and murdered his own country men a real traitor to his nation,and his crown. Here again to the victor's go the spoils. It is only because his side won that he is not viewed as the traitor he was. Thus is what revolutionaries are traitors to one group and freedom fighters to another.
Saverin is just some guy who is using his legal right to leave a situation that he feels is in his personal interests. He is not picking up arms and murdering US armed forces trying to overthrow a legitimate government. Man you are dence if you cannot see that GW was and all ways will be a traitor to his crown, and Saverin is just some guy who took an exit pass before the house of cards comes down.
GW and 3% of the colonials waged a traitorous war against their legit govt of the time lucky for us they won and we all owe them a debt of gratitude but never ever forget the price of rebellion is ALWAYS treason.
It seems you fail to grasp that everyone here has families who left a place that they felt was not in their own personal best interests to stay any longer, to call all these people traitorous and scum is a disservice to those immigrants. Again just because this guy has millions does not change the fact that he like ALL other emigrants is using his God given right to self interest he like all others before him move to best suit the needs of the individual you seem to be envious of his money would you be as quick to call a middle class scientist scum who gives up his second passport because it no longer is an asset but a liability.
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