Re: Goodbye and Good Luck - By Mark Steyn - The Corner - National Review Online
Mark, Jonah, I have no use for Denise Rich — not so much for the whole cash-for-pardons thing with Clinton, but for those hideous ululatory power ballads she writes for Céline, Aretha et al.
That being said, all this “what sort of red-blooded American renounces her citizenship over tax?” stuff is a wee bit much. It is the Government of the United States, uniquely in the civilized world, that binds citizenship to tax. An American who falls in love with an Uzbek or takes a job helping starving Third World children in Southern Sudan remains liable for U.S. taxation and has to file U.S. paperwork that is, in fact, more onerous than that required of U.S. residents, and is about to get more so.Jonah asks:
Is she really lowering her tax burden by moving to Austria and/or London?That’s the wrong question. As Jonah deduces, neither Austria nor the United Kingdom are famous tax havens. But it’s not the “burden” — the tax rate — but a more basic premise. Elsewhere in the world, there are two generally accepted bases for taxation: residency and source of income. Most countries tax you if you live within their borders, some tax you if you live elsewhere but earn money within their jurisdiction, but only America claims the right to tax you simply for being American — even if you, say, live in Belgium but drive over the border to work in Luxembourg every day. This is unique to the United States: Spain taxes you if you’re a resident of Spain; Slovenia taxes you if you’re a resident of Slovenia; but America taxes you if you’re an American who’s working as a teacher in Gabon. You’re at permanent risk of double taxation, and the fines for minor and accidental infraction are arbitrary and confiscatory.
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