If you are a nonimmigrant American reading this, do you know why your ancestors came to America? The fact is, a large percentage of immigrants were trying to escape various forms of government persecution, including religious and tax persecution. The American Revolution was set off, in part, by a tax on tea that ranged from about 10 percent to 33 percent of its value. That and other grievances were enough to cause people to take up arms against the British.
Rather than taking up arms, most people who believe the tax burden now has become too great pick up and leave, such as all of those Californians and New Yorkers who are moving to Texas and Florida, where there is no state income tax. Many are all atwitter about Facebook co-founder Eduardo Saverin deciding to move to Singapore to partially escape what he believes is excessive taxation. Leaving the U.S. is a much more extreme action than moving from a high-tax state to a low-tax state, but a record number of Americans gave up their citizenship last year.
At what point would you consider leaving the U.S.? If you were taxed 98 percent of your income, or 75 percent as the new French president wants to do, or merely 50 percent-plus which is what many Californians will be paying if Gov. Jerry Brown gets his proposed tax increase and President Obama succeeds in getting his proposed tax increase?
Sen. Charles E. Schumer, New York Democrat, and Sen. Robert P. Casey Jr., Pennsylvania Democrat — whose thought processes seem to be similar to those of King George III in 1776 — have denounced Mr.Saverin and introduced legislation to punish him and others who may wish to leave because of high taxes. It appears to me that this is nothing more than a modern version of the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850, which demanded slaves be returned to their “owners,” who were in effect imposing close to a 100 percent tax upon their slaves. If not for that pesky Constitution, you can bet Mr. Schumer would be proposing legislation to force all of those New York tax exiles in Florida and Texasto return to their high-tax New York plantations. The U.S., to its great shame, already imposes tax penalties on those who give up their citizenship — just like the old USSR did. Mr. Schumer, Mr. Casey, and others seem to have forgotten that theU.S. was founded on the idea of individual liberty, which includes the fundamental right of being able to flee what one views as an oppressive government.
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