7/27/2019 High Taxes Drive Away US Citizens

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High taxes drive away US citizensby Frank Kaufmann, 08/19/13

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The IRS is a U.S. government program, with the force of the American military

behind it, empowered to confiscate earned wages of its citizens. Those who do not

comply are imprisoned and broken.Out of control government spending, self interested elected officials, and anentitlement obsessed civil service community drive taxes up. This is the formulaprimarily responsible for the collapse and bankruptcy of several Mediterranean,European, First world nations, and over time, successfully will hobble Americaseconomy if nothing is done to reverse the tax addiction of elected officials. BothU.S. political parties are guilty.

Margaret Thatcher famously said, The problem with Socialism is that eventuallyyou run out of other peoples money.

The current U.S. administration is particularly hostile to private wealth, other thanthat accrued by government people, or the few big left donors such asentertainers and lawyers, and are relentless provocateurs and instigators of classwarfare along with its other habits of divisiveness, including race.

The obsession with tax collection of this administration manifests the sameexquisite impulse for control and manipulation of populations that characterizethe Obama campaign machine. Obamas governing style similarly has investedwith great focus on refining to razor thin edges the ability to track down otherpeoples money.

On August 9, The Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg, and many significant economicnews outlets reported that the number of US taxpayers who renounced U.S.citizenship hit a record high. The WSJ headline and leader was strong, Number ofAmericans Renouncing Citizenship Surges, Expert Says 2013 on Pace to SeeHighest Number of U.S. Expatriations Ever.

The prime factor for these defections among the many far reaching, across theboard tax crack-downs, relates to the fact that all income earned by citizens andpermanent residents, even those living abroad, can be subject to U.S. tax.The U.S. is the only nation in the Organization for Economic Cooperation andDevelopment that taxes citizens wherever they reside.

Additionally the US has begun a heavy push to tax all money held overseas.Since 2011, Americans, who disclose their non-U.S. bank accounts to the IRS,must file the more expansive 8938 form that asks for all foreign financial assets,including insurance contracts, loans and shareholdings in non-U.S. Companies.

Failure to file the 8938 form can result in a fine of as much as $50,000.

This focus on money overseas began following the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11,

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887323977304579002780562003814.htmlhttp://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887323977304579002780562003814.html

7/27/2019 High Taxes Drive Away US Citizens

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High taxes drive away US citizensby Frank Kaufmann, 08/19/13

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2001, but in 2009 was ratcheted up to focus on tax collection. The crackdown nowensnares smaller violators who were not intentionally evading U.S. taxes. AverageAmerican taxpayers now line up to apply for IRS limited-amnesty programs while

trying to pay off stiff penalties for past noncompliance.

Jeffrey Neiman, a former federal prosecutor describes the Foreign Account TaxCompliance Act as a web of rules that is overly burdensome. The cost ofcomplying with these rules and regulations can be steep even for people withsmall tax bills.With this hyper-aggressive, wildly punitive Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act,more of the estimated 6 million Americans living overseas are weighing the costof holding a U.S. Passport.

Already the number of those who have renounced U.S. citizenship in the first halfof 2013 stands at 1,810 compared with 235 for the whole of 2008.

President Hollande of France similarly has brought high profile loss to his countrywith obsessive and excessive tax greed, most famously seen with the high profiledefection of Frances most popular film star Grard Depardieu.

In 2012, Depardieus taxes were 85% of his income. Depardieu turned in hisFrench passport, and lives now in Nechin, Belgium, just over the border, where atleast a quarter of the inhabitants are wealthy French tax exiles.

When Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault declared that it is Depardieus patrioticduty to stay and pay, the actor responded, I was born in 1948. I started workingaged 14, as a printer, as a warehouseman, then as an actor, and Ive always paidmy taxes,France also lost Bernard Arnault, reportedly Frances richest man, rock star JohnnyHallyday and at least 6,000 other French citizens in the past decade.

The many-fold leap in U.S. defections in response to the growing and oppressivegovernment reach that is the trademark of the Obama administration should be abell weather. Citizens can be sure that once in place, such realities will not bereversed or repealed. One can only hope that indicators such as a surge indefections, coupled with the patent criminality of the IRS as revealed in its recentscandals and investigations, will arouse sufficient popular protest to awakenelected officials, hold them accountable, and put them on notice.