From Chris Edwards (Cato @ Liberty, Moving to Canada for Lower Taxes, July 6, 2009):
Marginal tax rates affect economic behavior. Thus I was not surprised when I read in a Mark Steyn column that retailer Tim Hortons (essentially Canada’s Starbucks) is packing up its U.S. headquarters and moving to Ontario. The company operates 3,457 retail outlets on both sides of the border.
We do have the highest corporate tax rates in the world, so it is not surprising that companies are bailing. But, Canada? I hadn't realized things were that bad.
As an aside, in a fit of fanciful dreaming, my husband and I spent the better part of the day yesterday looking at how to escape U.S. taxation, should we ever have any sort of windfall (such as a lottery win). Of course we have no need to escape it today, so it was entirely speculative.
What we found is that all the tax havens have closed. Most previous tax havens, such as Monaco, no longer maintain secret banking laws (if someone did want to be underhanded about escaping U.S. taxes). More to the point, for those who wish to do so in an above-board manner, it takes at least 10 years to become a citizen of Monaco (and other tax havens, if you can get into them, can take the same or longer). The reset clock for paying U.S. taxes begins once you have renounced your U.S. citizenship, and continues for 10 years. That means that it is a minimum of 20 years before U.S. taxes end.
The U.S., unlike every other country in the world, determines taxation requirements by citizenship, not by domicile. Even if you live in another country for 10 years, you still have to pay taxes, unless you are a citizen of another country for 10 years. No collecting $200 by passing Go, just by living somewhere else. Of course, once you leave the U.S. and become a citizen of another country, you can stop paying U.S. taxes, but you can never return to the U.S. to visit (unless you want to be arrested for tax avoidance).
None of the above applies to Obama appointees, of course.
The only place that we found that grants citizenship immediately (with a one-time "donation" of about $350,000, or specific type of property purchase) is St. Kitts in the West Indies.
There are worse places to live... like, say, Canada.
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