At 12:55 PM -0700 5/30/97, Ray Arachelian wrote:
On Fri, 30 May 1997, Tim May wrote:
And the Congressvermin are still attempting to impose an "exit tax" on accumulated assets, so that if I tried to move my assets (remember, assets = property = purchased things, not at all the same thing as "income") to some other country.
This is really a double tax since if you own assets, you've already paid taxes on those said assets in the form of income tax. If it's an inheritance, that too was taxed, so what the fuck? What's the justification behind this other than exit rape?
The exit tax would of course only be applied to the _gain_ in the value of an asset. As such, it is not double taxation (modulo the inflation issue)., If I bought 1000 shares in a stock at $20 and it was still at $20, no exit tax would be owed. If it had gone up to $30, a 28% tax (as proposed) would be levied on the $10,000 putative gain. This would apply even if the stock had not been sold, which is what the issue really is about. (Imagine having to pay a 28% tax on any putative gain in the value of personal possessions like old records or jewelry moved overseas.) And of course I don't imagine they'll issue _refunds_ for losses! ("Hi, I'm moving to Paris. I'm taking some stocks with me, most of them dogs. Please write out a check for $37,863.91 to cover 28% of the loss.") The issue of course is that the proposed exit tax tries to recapture taxes on income *not yet realized*.
I suppose one way is to take loads of trips and loads of AmEx traveler's checks, then gamble on things with 50% chance of winning, take the winnings and dump'em in accounts outside. Repeat until nothing's left, then exit with very little.
There are of course many such tricks. Many don't even muling your own cash across borders. (And the Empire strikes back by calling many of these things "structuring," for which the laws are very confusing and are so designed to terrorize citizen-units into not trying them.)
As we all know, the SS system is just a gigantic Ponzi scheme. Like gambling, the government runs operations it imprisons others for running.
So let's sue the system. Might fail, but maybe we can get it the fuck out of our income taxes. One less tax to bother with. Since it no longer
Let us know how it turns out. --Tim May There's something wrong when I'm a felon under an increasing number of laws. Only one response to the key grabbers is warranted: "Death to Tyrants!" ---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---- Timothy C. May | Crypto Anarchy: encryption, digital money, tcmay@got.net 408-728-0152 | anonymous networks, digital pseudonyms, zero W.A.S.T.E.: Corralitos, CA | knowledge, reputations, information markets, Higher Power: 2^1398269 | black markets, collapse of governments. "National borders aren't even speed bumps on the information superhighway."