Facebook Co-Founder Gives Up U.S. Citizenship
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Facebook Co-Founder Gives Up U.S. Citizenship
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Re: Facebook Co-Founder Gives Up U.S. Citizenship
#2Someone on HN caught that as well: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3944467
Re: Facebook Co-Founder Gives Up U.S. Citizenship
#3Some friends of mine are yelling "see? our tax code is pushing capital overseas!" My argument is, that with $4B at stake, even if we had a "reasonable" income tax, people like this would still seek out tax havens where the burden is even lower still.
Re: Facebook Co-Founder Gives Up U.S. Citizenship
#4Some friends of mine are yelling "see? our tax code is pushing capital overseas!" My argument is, that with $4B at stake, even if we had a "reasonable" income tax, people like this would still seek out tax havens where the burden is even lower still.
So you agree with your friends that people act in their best interests, including changing citizenship, when it comes to taxes, you just disagree on the amount of money it would take?
Re: Facebook Co-Founder Gives Up U.S. Citizenship
#5Some friends of mine are yelling "see? our tax code is pushing capital overseas!" My argument is, that with $4B at stake, even if we had a "reasonable" income tax, people like this would still seek out tax havens where the burden is even lower still.
Surely the number of people who would renounce their citizenship to save a small portion of their income is smaller than the number of people who would renounce their citizenship to save a large portion of their income.
Re: Facebook Co-Founder Gives Up U.S. Citizenship
#6It's common for UK citizens to give up citizenship, prior to an exit in their business and move to Monte-Carlo or Gilbraltar for a few years to avoid capital gains tax.
If Facebook blows up on the IPO and the stock value increases 50% or 100% he could easily be saving $500m - $1b in taxes. It's a no-brainer...
Re: Facebook Co-Founder Gives Up U.S. Citizenship
#7Some friends of mine are yelling "see? our tax code is pushing capital overseas!" My argument is, that with $4B at stake, even if we had a "reasonable" income tax, people like this would still seek out tax havens where the burden is even lower still.
To a multibillionaire, the value of retaining American citizenship could easily be hundreds of millions of dollars. Or it might be much lower in that. The degree of which citizens seek tax havens will be proportional to the level of taxation, not a black-and-white yes-or-no thing.
Re: Facebook Co-Founder Gives Up U.S. Citizenship
#8Some friends of mine are yelling "see? our tax code is pushing capital overseas!" My argument is, that with $4B at stake, even if we had a "reasonable" income tax, people like this would still seek out tax havens where the burden is even lower still.
We should give people a number of votes proportional to how much money they have, to give wealthy people more incentive to stay.
Re: Facebook Co-Founder Gives Up U.S. Citizenship
#9US citizenship is a nasty trap from which it is extremely difficult to escape. The US is one of a very small number of countries which will happily tax its citizens on income earned overseas, thus causing them to pay double taxes on everything they earn.
This has seriously bad consequences for US competitiveness, in particular:
1. It discourages competent foreign citizens from seeking US citizenship (a greencard is so much better!)
2. It discourages US workers from spending some of their careers overseas, thus reinforcing US cultural insularity and giving competitive disadvantages. Go to any interntional company's office in Singapore, Shanghai, Kuala Lumpur and note that it's filled with Brits, Australians, New Zealanders with very few Americans; this is why.
3. And of course, things like this.
Re: Facebook Co-Founder Gives Up U.S. Citizenship
#10He's going to regret this down the road. Yes taxing on Worldwide income is absurd but not more absurd than giving up your right to live in the US. There will come a day, probably not too far in the future, where being young and rich on a tiny island isn't fun anymore and he's going to want to do something with his life. He's going to be quite sad when doing it in the United States is no longer an option.