Two-thirds of millionaires left Britain to avoid 50% tax rate

[Chris_]

Two-thirds of millionaires left Britain to avoid 50% tax rate

In the 2009-10 tax year, more than 16,000 people declared an annual income of more than £1 million to HM Revenue and Customs.

This number fell to just 6,000 after Gordon Brown introduced the new 50p top rate of income tax shortly before the last general election.

Telegraph

There's a surprise.

[Carl]

Remember,the British music invasion of the 60s led to what was known as tax exiles of the 70s.

[NHSparky]

Hmmmm...Maryland raises taxes on "wealthy", they leave in droves.  IL and CA just jacked up tax rates on "rich", watch for same.  People of means have been leaving MA, NY, NJ for years.

Most professional athletes are FL residents, which (surprise!) has no state tax.

One of Facebook's founders gave up his US citizenship and moved himself (and his newly found wealth) to Singapore after Facebook's IPO.  Lucas sold his studio to Disney BEFORE the tax rates bumped up in January.  Walmart is paying their quarterly dividend on December 29th versus January 2nd to save over $120 million. 

And it goes on, and on, and on...

[JohnnyReb]

What we need is a tax rate that will make the poor/useless/deadbeat/welfare/foodstamp/dopeheads  leave.

[Chris_]

What we need is a tax rate that will make the poor/useless/deadbeat/welfare/foodstamp/dopeheads  leave.

Make them pay taxes on the free stuff they get from Uncle Sugar.

[Linda]

Make them pay taxes on the free stuff they get from Uncle Sugar.

I agree and at the same tax rate that they want to tax the rich. How much fairer can you get?

[MrsSmith]

The worst thing about paying attention to the news and politics is watching how oblivious our leaders and many voters are to simple common sense. Seriously, they believe they can cure obesity by taxing sugar and smoking by taxing tobacco, but really believe that raising taxes on "the rich" will change NOTHING they do.  How can so many people be so stupid and so greedy?????

[BlueStateSaint]

I saw something on Drudge yesterday where MLB players, up for renegotiating contracts, are trying to get them massively front-loaded, so as to avoid the taxes that are coming down the line from the Oministration.

[DLR Pyro]

an email I got the other day that explains this concept is a way most DUmmies should grasp...

THE TAX SYSTEM EXPLAINED IN BEER
Suppose that every day, ten men go out for beer and the bill for all ten comes to $100. If they paid their bill the way we pay our taxes, it would go something like this...

The first four men (the poorest) would pay nothing.
The fifth would pay $1.
The sixth would pay $3.
The seventh would pay $7..
The eighth would pay $12.
The ninth would pay $18.
The tenth man (the richest) would pay $59.

So, that's what they decided to do.

The ten men drank in the bar every day and seemed quite happy with the arrangement, until one day, the owner threw them a curve ball. "Since you are all such good customers," he said, "I'm going to reduce the cost of your daily beer by $20." Drinks for the ten men would now cost just $80.

The group still wanted to pay their bill the way we pay our taxes. So the first four men were unaffected. They would still drink for free. But what about the other six men? The paying customers? How could they divide the $20 windfall so that everyone would get his fair share?

They realized that $20 divided by six is $3.33. But if they subtracted that from everybody's share, then the fifth man and the sixth man would each end up being paid to drink his beer.

So, the bar owner suggested that it would be fair to reduce each man's bill by a higher percentage the poorer he was, to follow the principle of the tax system they had been using, and he proceeded to work out the amounts he suggested that each should now pay.
And so the fifth man, like the first four, now paid nothing (100% saving).
The sixth now paid $2 instead of $3 (33% saving).
The seventh now paid $5 instead of $7 (28% saving).
The eighth now paid $9 instead of $12 (25% saving).
The ninth now paid $14 instead of $18 (22% saving).
The tenth now paid $49 instead of $59 (16% saving).

Each of the six was better off than before. And the first four continued to drink for free. But, once outside the bar, the men began to compare their savings.

"I only got a dollar out of the $20 saving," declared the sixth man. He pointed to the tenth man,"but he got $10!"
"Yeah, that's right," exclaimed the fifth man. "I only saved a dollar too. It's unfair that he got ten times more benefit than me!"
"That's true!" shouted the seventh man. "Why should he get $10 back, when I got only $2? The wealthy get all the breaks!"
"Wait a minute," yelled the first four men in unison, "we didn't get anything at all. This new tax system exploits the poor!" The nine men surrounded the tenth and beat him up.

The next night the tenth man didn't show up for drinks, so the nine sat down and had their beers without him. But when it came time to pay the bill, they discovered something important. They didn't have enough money between all of them for even half of the bill!

And that, boys and girls, journalists and government ministers, is how our tax system works. The people who already pay the highest taxes will naturally get the most benefit from a tax reduction. Tax them too much, attack them for being wealthy, and they just may not show up anymore. In fact, they might start drinking overseas, where the atmosphere is somewhat friendlier.

David R. Kamerschen, Ph.D.
Professor of Economics.

For those who understand, no explanation is needed.
For those who do not understand, no explanation is possible.

[DumbAss Tanker]

The worst thing about paying attention to the news and politics is watching how oblivious our leaders and many voters are to simple common sense. Seriously, they believe they can cure obesity by taxing sugar and smoking by taxing tobacco, but really believe that raising taxes on "the rich" will change NOTHING they do.  How can so many people be so stupid and so greedy?????

When that number hits 51% of the voters, we get to see the downside of democratic forms of government.  Like now.  Unfortunately all the alternatives have even bigger problems.

[Gratiot]

One of Facebook's founders gave up his US citizenship and moved himself (and his newly found wealth) to Singapore after Facebook's IPO.

That guy was rich long before Facebook and had been a resident of Singapore for years already.  He also is huge in Asian and Brazilian venture capital and not really active in American business besides owning a significant portion of Facebook.  His change of citizenship wasn't over taxes, he just had nothing to do with America anymore.  It made sense, especially since I believe he was only given US citizenship because he made some large VC investments in silicone valley, and wasn't from here originally.  If anything the banking documentation requirements of expats was a more onerous issue that likely played an effect.

[Karin]

And it was on the news this morning that that butt-ugly, hideous French actor, Gerard Depardieu, is leaving France due to those sky-high taxes.   I think a lot of celebs are quietly packing up. 

MrsSmith, I have no idea how so many people can be so stupid, either.  I feel like knocking heads together. 

[thundley4]

And it was on the news this morning that that butt-ugly, hideous French actor, Gerard Depardieu, is leaving France due to those sky-high taxes.   I think a lot of celebs are quietly packing up. 

MrsSmith, I have no idea how so many people can be so stupid, either.  I feel like knocking heads together. 

It would be interesting to know how many Hollyweird celebrities actually claim California as their place of residence and pay stay taxes there.

[docstew]

What we need is a tax rate that will make the poor/useless/deadbeat/welfare/foodstamp/dopeheads  leave.

FairTax

Also works to disincentivize cash only income and illegal immigration.

[Lacarnut]

The Brits and others in the EU can leave and take their money and income with them. Not so in the US. A citizen of the US must may pay taxes on all income derived in the states unless he or she renounces citizenship. That usually takes 5 years or you can buy citizenship in two Carribean countries for big bucks. In other words, the long arm of the IRS will hunt down a US citizen that moves to another country but earns income here.

[formerlurker]

People of means have been leaving MA, NY, NJ for years.

http://www.massbudget.org/report_window.php?loc=tax_rank_2010.html

MA hasn;t shaken the reputation it earned during the Duke years, but we had Republican Governors for a while who brought things back from pure socialism.  

Patrick is looking to bring back the Duke era however with his FY14 budget.  Tax and spend baby, it's what is trickling down from the Obama administration.

[formerlurker]

And it was on the news this morning that that butt-ugly, hideous French actor, Gerard Depardieu, is leaving France due to those sky-high taxes.   I think a lot of celebs are quietly packing up. 

MrsSmith, I have no idea how so many people can be so stupid, either.  I feel like knocking heads together. 

He became a Russian citizen about a month ago didn't he?

[docstew]

http://www.massbudget.org/report_window.php?loc=tax_rank_2010.html

MA hasn;t shaken the reputation it earned during the Duke years, but we had Republican Governors for a while who brought things back from pure socialism.  

Patrick is looking to bring back the Duke era however with his FY14 budget.  Tax and spend baby, it's what is trickling down from the Obama administration.

I would question the validity of that chart. It states that Alaska has an effective tax rate of almost 20% for just state and local taxes. I just don't see how that could be, since Alaska doesn't have state income taxes OR sales taxes and I seriously doubt it has property taxes high enough to take 20% of the average taxpayers income.

[formerlurker]

I would question the validity of that chart. It states that Alaska has an effective tax rate of almost 20% for just state and local taxes. I just don't see how that could be, since Alaska doesn't have state income taxes OR sales taxes and I seriously doubt it has property taxes high enough to take 20% of the average taxpayers income.

I attended a presentation by this organization, which included this chart. 

Alaskans pay no state-level tax on income and face no state-level sales tax (though there is a local option sales tax with rates that can range from 1 to 7 percent). But Alaska does have a special, prodigious source of revenue: severance taxes on oil extraction. In fact, Alaska is able to raise over 70 percent of its revenue from taxes on oil extraction, and the state’s residents actually receive checks at tax time from a reserve fund of billions in oil tax revenue.
The burden of Alaska’s oil taxes does not fall predominantly on Alaska residents. This study assumes that much of the economic burden of these taxes falls not on Alaskans but rather on consumers of oil and oil-based products across the country in the form of higher prices. Therefore, to correctly portray how low the Alaskan residents’ tax burden is, we allocate Alaska’s oil severance tax to other U.S. states based on oil and gas consumption. Once this allocation is made, Alaskans’ tax burden falls from among the nation’s highest to the lowest. Taxes levied on mineral extraction in other states have similar but less dramatic effects.

http://taxfoundation.org/article/annual-state-local-tax-burden-ranking-2010-new-york-citizens-pay-most-alaska-least

MA Budget and Policy Office did not agree with this and included these taxes. 

[NHSparky]

I attended a presentation by this organization, which included this chart. 

http://taxfoundation.org/article/annual-state-local-tax-burden-ranking-2010-new-york-citizens-pay-most-alaska-least

MA Budget and Policy Office did not agree with this and included these taxes. 

Of course they don't agree with it--it would make them look bad.

Graft and corruption is expensive, ya know, and the little people need to fund it somehow.

Hmmmm...maybe I can go down to Dorchester, claim to be an illegal, and get an EBT card so I can go to the nudie bar later.

[formerlurker]

Of course they don't agree with it--it would make them look bad.

Graft and corruption is expensive, ya know, and the little people need to fund it somehow.

Hmmmm...maybe I can go down to Dorchester, claim to be an illegal, and get an EBT card so I can go to the nudie bar later.

Wait a minute - MA Budget and Policy is a separate think tank from state government.    They do outstanding work. 

[JohnnyReb]

S.C. is 44 th....I counted......still to much.

[NHSparky]

Wait a minute - MA Budget and Policy is a separate think tank from state government.    They do outstanding work. 

I'll take the Tax Foundation's numbers over just about anyone, thanks:

http://taxfoundation.org/article/state-and-local-tax-burdens-all-states-one-year-1977-2010

MA is 8th highest burden in 2010.  How much you want to bet DeVille's plans push that number higher still?

[formerlurker]

I'll take the Tax Foundation's numbers over just about anyone, thanks:

http://taxfoundation.org/article/state-and-local-tax-burdens-all-states-one-year-1977-2010

MA is 8th highest burden in 2010.  How much you want to bet DeVille's plans push that number higher still?

That makes no sense.  MA budget includes ALL taxes, the Tax Foundation eliminated them from their calculations. 

Quick google shows this is common practice for them - CATO takes exception to it here: http://www.cato.org/blog/getting-highway-numbers-right-tax-foundations-response


Deval has some pie in the sky delusions on tax revenue that won't be supported by the statehouse.

[NHSparky]

Deval has some pie in the sky delusions on tax revenue that won't be supported by the statehouse.

C'mon, FL--if it's taxes, they'll pass it.