(Hat Tip to the always interesting NoodleFood) So now it appears that Washington’s view of US citizenship is modeled after a long-term cell phone contract. If you’ve done well and decide that you might get a better deal elsewhere, there’s that pesky early-termination fee to deal with (“early” meaning any time before death):
The new law, bill JCX-44-8, reads like this: “In general, the provision imposes tax on certain US citizens who relinquish their US citizenship and certain long-term US residents who terminate their US residency. Such individuals are subject to income tax on the net unrealized gain in their property as if the property had been sold for its fair market value.”
The first $600,000 of your assets are protected. But after that, the assets – including your house, car, the Dali painting your mother left you – are “marked-to-market,” as they say on Wall Street. In other words, someone takes a stab at the value of your assets and then you are presented with a tax bill.
I guess the idea is that citizenship is a bundle of goodies that Washington is happy to subsidize, but only if you are willing to pay for life. Wish I had known that before my free trial period expired.
Other arguments aside, the world is simply too small for running away to be an effective strategy. Those who think that your life is a means to their ends will never just leave you alone. The time is here to make a stand. But how? he said mysteriously…
0 Responses
Stay in touch with the conversation, subscribe to the RSS feed for comments on this post.