this post was submitted on 27 Aug 2023
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Flee where exactly? If this were national, they'd have to flee the country. And good riddance to them and their hoarding. They improve nothing.
If all the leeches on society fled we'd be much better off. Let them leave. They don't pay their fair share anyways, and their neoliberal lobbying has destroyed this country.
Exactly.
Tax havens. Ever heard of the Caymans, the Bahamas and so on?
You mean the things they already use and wouldn't be able to if they lived in the U.S. and the loopholes were closed? What about them?
So you want to suppress freedom of movement?
What? No, I want people to pay taxes in the country they live in. What on Earth are you talking about?
So you want to close the borders and not allow someone to migrate? Like, you move to another country but you still have to pay taxes to your native country + your new one?
Again, no. I want people who live in the U.S. to pay taxes. I don't know how I can be more clear on this. If billionaires don't want to pay taxes in the U.S., they don't have to live in the U.S.
Let them go. They provide no value. They're hoarders, not job creators.
Oops I forgot to tackle your last line
What company are you working for? (If you're working at all)
That's none of your business. What do you want next, my home address?
Companies operate internationally or at least nationally
Nice try, you're not going to get me to dox myself and I'm contacting the moderators if you try again.
Again, then who pays the taxes? The middle class
They're already the ones paying the taxes. The billionaires aren't. That's the whole point. Either they contribute finally or they leave and nothing changes. Either way, what's the downside?
They aren't paying the taxes because they're already using loopholes. Raising them is not the way
If they're already not paying taxes and raising them would force them to leave then, again, there's no difference except we lose a bunch of asshole billionaires. So that sounds like a net gain to me. I'm sure Russia would welcome them.
OR maybe what needs to be done is to send those loopholes to hell
What benefit do billionaires serve for the U.S.?
The only taxes they pay and the employment they create
They don't pay taxes and they don't create employment.
Stop with the myths.
If they don't create employment explain why lots of people work for their companies
Yeah, I'm not really inclined to discuss anything else with someone who tried to get me to dox myself.
When working for a company=doxxing=I can victimize myself into not answering
I'm not especially interested in you finding and harassing me at work. Sorry.
Sure, I have that much interest in Internet strangers.
Whatever, I just asked that question to prove that companies do in fact create employment, but you took the question too personally
I feel like you are being deliberately obtuse.
Give it a rest.
You already have to do this in the US. The first $120,000 of income is exempt from federal taxes when you live abroad, but everything above that is subject to US federal income tax.
And you don't have to MOVE there to shelter tax. You just create a shell corporation that is housed there virtually that owns your yacht, your third house, your businesses. That's why there are 800,000 corporations with an address in the British Virgin Islands even though the main island is only 22km long and the entire country only has around 30,000 people in it.
You clearly have no idea how any of this really works and you're just parroting things you heard or read somewhere. Let me suggest you stop talking and try to learn something here instead.
Rich people are not going to flee the United States because of taxes for two reasons: We have good infrastructure (relatively speaking anyway) and we have a reliable, predictable business court system.
Do you know why Cayman, Bahamas, and British Virgin Islands are actually preferred for creation of shell corporations? Because their court systems appeal all the way to the United Kingdom supreme court. Stable business court system is the reason those countries were able to take advantage of loopholes in our tax code.
That's exactly how it works. You want to retain your US citizenship while living abroad, you pay US taxes. Ask anyone. This is common knowledge. The only way out of it is to renounce US citizenship and it turns out that very few rich people actually want to do that because it has giant ripple effects on everything they own and often their extended family and how they can manage their wealth and even where they can give money to support causes they believe in.
The only way around this is through off-shore tax havens that can be taken advantage of through loopholes in the tax code which in turn are exactly what people are talking about addressing here.
Sorry you didn't get the memo.
Wait Americans ever leave their country?
Have you ever LIVED in one of those tax havens? Because I have, and trust me, rich folks ain't up and moving to a tiny wild west country controlled by black people anytime soon. Especially when they can get the exact same tax havens benefits in Delaware, Wyoming, Nevada....
Stop falling for the propaganda that the Caribbean is causing problems for us. They're not. Our tax code created the incentives. We're the problem.
Ireland maybe?
You're wrong. Accept it. The idea that the rich will flee if we tax them is propaganda perpetuated by the rich to keep us from trying.
You think it's propaganda, I know it has already happened several times, just not in the US because they're in charge of it
Oh you know, do you? Do share please.
It hasn't happened in the US and it isn't going to happen in the US because above all else, rich people favor the quality of life they're able to achieve in rich countries. Where are they gonna flee, the EU? Where taxes are already higher? Ireland you said? A tiny country with little in the way of American-style luxury amenities that has zero interest in allowing them to immigrate there?
The rich will stay just like they did back in the 50s when the highest marginal tax rate was 90%. It's time to make them pay their share for the benefits they gain from this country.
Ireland has basically every company's European headquarters
What part of "shell corporations are not the same thing as actual rich people moving to a place" is difficult for you to understand? Shell corporations existing outside the US in no way is the same thing as the rich fleeing the country.
It'll be if you squeeze them hard enough
1950s. 90% marginal tax rate. Rich people did not flee because THERE IS NOWHERE ELSE TO GO.
Jesus Christ, you're really a special kind of dense.