Senators Schumer (D-NY) and Casey (D-Pa) plan to introduce a bill to impose an additional capital gains tax on Americans who renounce their citizenship and to bar them from ever reentering the United States. The news story is here. Of course the Berlin Wall was much more harsh -- you got shot if tried to exit -- but the Democratic version is a financial kneecapping. Schumer and Casey need to amend Emma Lazarus's inscription on the Statue of Liberty with some new lines: Give me your tired, your poor/Your huddled masses, yearning to breathe free/But once inside Schumer's door/Don't ever try to flee.
Wow, I had no idea that Schumer and Casey were making it illegal for citizens to leave the US!
Oh, wait, they're not. They're just conditioning re-entry post-renunciation on paying taxes.
Massey obviously subscribes to Republican rule of conduct #1: never let pesky facts get in the way of a right-wing talking-point, especially one that involves taxes.
Posted by: Kevin Heller | May 17, 2012 at 10:41 PM
Of course if you are a wealthy Democratic donor named Marc Rich and are in Switzerland avoiding a tax evasion indictment, the Donkeys will be sure to get you a presidential pardon so you can safely return to American shores.
Posted by: TS | May 18, 2012 at 06:32 AM
I see those who leave us to avoid paying taxes as akin to the draft dodgers who left the nation rather than doing their part or serving as a CO. These folks do not want their money to serve. On exit, them pay a stiff wealth tax on the wealth they derived while here or let them stay where they are and only be allowed to rejoin the rest of us on our shores under extreme circumstances, if at all. Being a citizen of this country is both a blessed right and a privilege which those who cast it aside for a handful of gold demonstrate that they never really understood or were unworthy of in the first place.
Posted by: Bill Turnier | May 18, 2012 at 10:15 AM
This post is not very well-informed. If you refer the Statement of Understanding form that is already in use by our State Department, you will note that item #10 states that people who renounce citizenship to escape taxes are excludable: http://www.state.gov/documents/organization/81607.pdf.
I know that Prof. Massey is probably not an expert on these matters, but he might want to aim a bit higher in his analysis than simply regurgitating some Fox News talking point.
Posted by: tde | May 18, 2012 at 04:49 PM
The fact that section 212(a)(10)(E) of the Immigration and Nationality Act gives the Attorney General discretion to exclude a former American if he determines that renunciation of citizenship was to avoid taxes does not address the Schumer/Casey proposal, which would create a non-discretionary bar, nor does it address the policy wisdom of imposing an exit tax on Americans who wish to discard their citizenship. The exit tax is already in place: An American who renounces his citizenship triggers a capital gains tax on his unrealized gains. That rate is currently 15%. Schumer/Casey would raise it to 30% for that tax event alone. Moreover, I would think liberals would cringe at governments extracting assets from their citizens as the price for departure. Nazi Germany did somewhat the same thing to departing Jews in the middle 1930s, before that regime closed the door altogether.
And finally, "tde," you might want aim a little higher than ad hominem attacks.
Posted by: Calvin Massey | May 18, 2012 at 05:29 PM
Imposing a wealth tax on this who leave us and renounce their citizenship for the sake of tax savings can be viewed as akin to a death tax. They should be dead to us who stick around and value our common bonds as citizens while we attempt to sort out our problems and improve this wonderful republic of ours. I have always been proud to be an American and although I can understand how citizens of different countries are also proud of their citizenship that they share with their fellow citizens, I have scant respect fir those who leave us for a handful of dollars that they wish to harbor abroad. Mind you, they do not want euros, rupees or yuan, they want dollars or Swiss francs. Says something about their basic character and values, doesn't it?
Posted by: Bill Turnier | May 18, 2012 at 06:04 PM
This issue is in the news, of course, because of Mr. Saverin who, as of today, is worth north of $3B and who reportedly stands to save some $67M in capital gains taxes by renouncing his citizenship."
You state: "I would think liberals would cringe at governments extracting assets from their citizens as the price for departure. Nazi Germany did somewhat the same thing to departing Jews in the middle 1930s, before that regime closed the door altogether."
I am not a liberal, but I would suggest to you that Mr. Saverin's situation is really not "somewhat the same thing" Nazi's did to departing Jews.
Posted by: tde | May 18, 2012 at 06:37 PM
I wonder why it is assumed that Mr. Saverin is only motivated to leave by taxes. That seems drastic, no? Leave your country - the country in which you became a 'self-made man' - *only* because she will suck a good deal of your blood, sweat and tears, your life labor? Do 'we the people' really think that we have some claim to the product of labor that could ever rival the unsung internal and external struggle to 'make it'? And what of the little people who wish to flee? Will a 30% capital gains tax really dissuade the rich who, so we say, can readily afford it, rather than a more regular joe who wishes to cash out because he figures he can more readily retire in Mexico than the US? The left whines and whines about synthetic credit products that don't even count as legit hedges half the time, while they set capital gains high enough that a small-time genuine investor cannot make a buck after the gov't has taken her bite. Excluded from markets much? The left will never truly catch the rich in their homage net, just the rest of us who are perpetually these days a little less free.
Posted by: CC | May 24, 2012 at 11:57 PM