Bruce Bartlett writing for the New York Times in Will Rich People Desert the U.S. if Their Taxes Are Raised? says:
In recent years, the number of Americans renouncing their citizenship has increased. According to the international tax lawyer, Andrew Mitchel, the number of Americans renouncing their citizenship rose to 1,781 in 2011 from 231 in 2008.
The mobility of individuals with a large net worth – who generally have no difficulty finding a nation to welcome them and their capital – has unquestionably increased in the last several years, especially within the European Union, where barriers against the movement of people have fallen sharply. This has reduced the ability of all governments everywhere from engaging in soak-the-rich policies.
As I noted in a recent post, Britain recently reduced its top income tax rate in part because of a belief that it would reduce the number of Britons living abroad. And the victory of the Socialist François Hollande in France’s presidential election on Sunday, on a platform of raising the top tax rate to 75 percent, may lead to some relocation from there, according to an article in The Financial Times.
It is probably true that the the number of rich people who flee a country solely because of high taxes is low. It’s a big deal to renounce your citizenship and move to another country. The bigger problem in the U.S. is state taxation. Although Bartlett says that high tax states like California and New York are “magnets for the rich” because of their culture and cuisine, the truth is that rich people and their businesses often relocate to low tax states.
Related Posts:
- Tiger Woods to Avoid Ryder Cup Because of U.K. Taxes
- The Jamaican Blur Runs Away from High Taxes
- If You Tax Them, They Will Flee
- Wealth Flight Goes National
- Rich Folks Flee Maryland, Say Goodbye to High Taxes
- High Taxes Cause New Yorkers too Flee
- Michael Caine to Move to America if Brit Tax Rates Goes to 51%
- Phantom of the Opera Composer Andrew Lloyd Weber Opposes High U.K. Taxes
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1 They’re not shooting rich jaywalkers « Roth & Company, P.C // May 9, 2012 at 10:35 am
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