Gulag America. Senator Schumer (D-NY) must have been re-reading his communist history. After WW II, eastern Europe was losing population to the west. Rather than live in the Communist paradise, Eastern Europeans fled to escape the oppression. The communists retaliated. Churchill named the creation of that retaliation the Iron Curtain. A few years later they added the Berlin Wall. If anyone was captured (rather than killed outright) trying to leave, they were sent off to the Gulags where no one was able to escape. That is what Senator Schumer and Senator Bob Casey want to create—Gulag America where no one can escape. Paying taxes, that is.
Schumer has introduced a bill, called the Ex-Patriot Act by some, that would punish anyone who gives up US citizenship to save their asset from Schumer’s taxman. Schumer doesn’t mind people leaving. In fact in bill prohibits them from returning. No, he just wants them to leave their money behind…at least 30% behind.
Why is Schumer doing this? Because Eduardo Saverin, the co-founder of Facebook, renounced his U.S. citizenship last year and moved to Singapore. If he make a few billion off the Facebook IPO, Saverin would pay taxes in Singapore, where there is no capital gains tax.
The nerve of Saverin! Leaving the country just to preserve a few billions of dollars. It’s immaterial that Saverin pays taxes in Singapore. No, Schumer wants this non-citizen, who doesn’t live in the US, to pay US taxes.
Democratic Sens. Charles Schumer (N.Y.) and Bob Casey Jr. (Pa.) announced legislation on Thursday designed to punish people who renounce their citizenship in order to dodge taxes.
Their bill, the Ex-Patriot Act, is a direct response to Eduardo Saverin, the co-founder of Facebook, who renounced his U.S. citizenship last year. The news became public last week.
“Eduardo Saverin wants to de-friend the United States of America just to avoid paying taxes. We aren’t going to let him get away with it,” Schumer said at a press conference Thursday where he announced the new legislation.
The citizenship move will save Saverin, who was born in Brazil and now lives in Singapore, an estimated $67 million to $100 million in taxes. That amount could increase if Facebook’s stock price rises.
Schumer called Saverin’s actions “outrageous.”
“Saverin has turned his back on the country that welcomed him and kept him safe, educated him and helped him become a billionaire,” Schumer said.
Casey called Saverin’s plan an “insult to the American people” that “cries out for some basic justice.”
Under the bill, anyone who renounces their citizenship and has a net worth of $2 million or an average income tax liability of $148,000 over the last five years will be presumed to be trying to dodge taxes. The person can appeal that designation to the Internal Revenue Service.
But if the IRS determines a person gave up their passport for primarily tax reasons, all of the person’s U.S. assets will be taxed at 30 percent, double the usual rate of 15 percent.
The person will also be barred from ever entering the United States again.
Instead of punishing Saverin and others like him who are leaving the US for better tax waters, perhaps Senators Schumer and Casey should be asking themselves WHY people are leaving this People’s Paradise? Perhaps if they would try to resolve that question people wouldn’t have a need to leave.
How about that Chuckie, old boy?
Nah, you’ll never do that, will you Chuckie. You’d rather be a Socialist elite. After all, it’s the State’s responsibility to control the economy. It worked so well for the Soviets.