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Oh, That's Rich

by Michael Maiello 7/9/2012 - 7:18 pm   |

Like most of you (I'm guessing), I was delighted and appalled by the stories detailing the privilege and self regard of Mitt Romney's backers this morning.  Though I can kind of understand driving around the Hampton's yelling, "We're VIP!" at the help, given the amount of money these people had to give to Mittens.  They'd darned well better be VIP, right?  It's what they're paying for.  They want to be VIP in the eyes of the next president.

And it's certainly amusing how some of these people think that the poors and the college students aren't voting in their own interests.  I half expect them to come out with a book like "What's The Matter With New Haven?"

But, on top of the wealthy clowns who Romney is parting from their money (these are true Hobin Roods, stealing from each other to give to a wealthy man) we get the news today that Denise Rich has renounced her U.S. citizenship in order to cut her tax bills.

Rich is ex-wife of the formerly fugitive Marc Rich, a wealthy commodities trader who used a complex "daisy chaining" scheme to trade in banned Iranian oil, in violation of U.S. sanctions at the time.  This man is so rich that he made his own foreign policy.  When charged with his crimes, he fled to Zug, Switzerland, where he restarted his commodities business and lived in exile for years, occasionally popping up in the news when bored FBI agents would try to force his private plane down onto the soil of some country with an extradition treaty.

Denise Rich, separated amicably from Marc, is also extremely wealthy and was a Friend of Bill.  She convinced Bill Clinton's people to pardon her ex husband who, I believe, stayed in Switzerland anyway because, to heck with us.  At least nobody's trying to guide his plane down anymore and he can visit.

Now Denise, who had enough power and influence that she could get Rich a pass on crimes that would have put others in prison for decades, has decided it's not worth it for her to pay taxes anymore.

When Eduardo Saverin renounced the country that welcomed him, sheltered him from potential kidnappers in Brazil and gave him a one in a billion shot at turning $20,000 in $5 billion, I scoffed.  But I get the argument.  He's young.  He's a citizen of the world.  It's his life, he's got different plans and ambitions.  He wants to do stuff with the money that U.S. citizens can't do (monkey knife fighting?)  I think it's sick, but he's basically a case of extreme luck anyway.

Denise Rich was a political operator.  And now she up and takes her money out of the country to save on taxes? Forget it.  Confiscate every penny.  Knock her down to zero and drop her off in St. Louis to begin anew.  Because if this is the attitude of the rich -- that they make their own rules, that presidents do them favors and then they don't even pay taxes -- then examples must be made.  Somebody has to say, "Uh... no."

Denise Rich.  Take all of her stuff and give it to the poors.  Leave her in East St. Louis.  She'll be fine.

 

The problem is not Denise Rich. The problem is that there are a large number of people who wish they could be Denise Rich.

 

VIP = Vain Ignorant Person

by cmaukonen 7/9/2012 - 8:25 pm

If you confiscate all her money, you'll simply get one of two headlines ...

Fox News:  Poor Denise Rich

MSNBC:   Rich Denise Poor

 

 

 

 

 

by MrSmith1 7/9/2012 - 10:57 pm

It's amazing how many purported liberals become right-wing spouters on immigration.

Once upon a time, Paris was the place to go to study, to make your career, to expand your horizons. Imagine someone taking advantage of the French system, L'École des Hautes Études or the Sorbonne, and then renouncing it to go live in America!

Here's one - imagine an enlightened country that took you in as a Jewish refugee post-WWII with Europe in ashes, gave you the world's best education - and then you abandon her! Ohmygod, asshole! Well, I'm talking about George Soros, of course - how dare he abandon England after getting a London School of Economics degree, and going off to Wall Street and all his liberal American causes. What a money-slave turncoat.

Canada, educated the likes of Peter Jennings, gives him a shot on CTV, and he instead goes off to CNN?

Or we spend lots of time and attention and Cold War intrigue to save Alexandr Solzhenitsyn from the Gulags of Siberia, and instead of staying put in New Hampshire, he goes back! To Russia! Where they still have Putin and oppression! Doesn't he see the beauty of the American way anymore?

Or Golda Meir - we gave her shelter from 19th century Kiev, and instead of hanging tight in Milwaukee, she goes off and becomes Prime Minister of a new country!!! What's she thinking? When we said "America, love it or leave it", we really meant just "love it".

Johnnie Depp, living in France? We gave him the Caribbean. Malkovich would be living there too, but he came back because of taxes? Evil people.

Or people who abandoned California because of its high taxes to move to Nevada? What about the wine, the beaches, the surfing? Or those retirees moving to Mexico to live in campers by the bay - what capitalists, where's their heart, their gratefulness?

Or people who left the Rust Belt for the Sun Belt, just because they have jobs down there. Where's their gratitude? Why can't they pay taxes in 2 places?

Maybe a third of America's most successful sports stars came from other countries - think of the bonanzas we get from foreign sports training programs How many foreign students at Stanford or MIT stay put, helping build our economy and pay for our roads and wars. But lets whine about a few who got away, who didn't tilt our way.

Now, back to the facts. Saverin came to the US because his parents brought him. They were wealthy - could have moved to Paris, Lisbon, London, Barcelona - no problem. Miami's convenient, fine - he went to college, career went well, off to see the world, settles in Singapore. Cool for him. I know Americans who settled in Hong Kong or Thailand or Germany. Have a Czech friend who made the loop - Austrian exile, settled in Melbourne, punk art scene in New York, Berlin underground, back to Prague. Somewhere in there were money issues, safety issues, and just having fun. Why do we care?

Marc Rich? Well, he didn't accept his pardon because the conditions were too draconian for him to accept  - something lost in the hoopla at the time. *HE WAS NOT PARDONED*. He was offered a pardon, but as part of accepting would have to face civil suits. (his indictment under RICO act was unusual for criminal penalties).

Denise Rich? She wasn't an "operator" - she was a song-writer, then socialite who happened to contribute a lot a few election runs, now she's just an aging European jet-setter. Now her boyfriend/partner lives in London, she spends most of her time there.

And since new US tax laws make foreign banks & investment houses follow our rules if Americans invest there - open your books, file these 300 forms- she like most Americans abroad now has trouble finding people who want to deal with our shit.

And so she found a reasonable tax advantage that's similar to what Brits use who live in the US and pay US taxes. OHMYGOD - she's evil, because the Brits would be paying good ol' God-ordained US taxes and avoiding British tax, while she would be paying British tax and avoiding US and Austrian tax. Amazing, never thought of England as a tax haven.

Instead of showing ire against regulations like FBAR (could this be any closer to FUBAR?) that make being an expat difficult, we want Americans to stay put at home and act like patriotic little squirrels. Expats have had most tax advantages taken away and receive few services, usually not worth voting as they have no representatives, but they make an easy target when politicians want to gouge for more cash.

It doesn't matter that in American exceptionalism, we tax Americans on worldwide income unlike everyone else, make the world's financial houses adjust all their rules for us - we can't look in the mirror - we just have to be envious that somewhere someone saved a dime on taxes, and clamp it down.

I guess Fox News is good for everyone these days. Feel the outrage, support the troops.

by PeraclesPlease 7/10/2012 - 2:01 am

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