- Eduardo Saverin's Taxes

I'm not sure what Eduardo's tax liability is, at this point probably no one is absolutely certain. But I do know for certain that ABC news has gotten the story wrong. US citizens are already liable for taxes on their income for 10 years after the surrender their citizenship. Any skilled tax attorney can tell you that - and Eduardo's people certainly know it. So there is nothing new in that specific area about Chuck Schumer's newly proposed tax tantrum. What is different is that Schumer's bill will prevent Eduardo from returning to the US.

His lawyers would certainly know better than me, but I suspect Eduardo is making the claim that since he already had joint citizenship with Brazil, it was as a Brazilian citizen that he did his work with Facebook. And if that's their claim, then I suppose they can make the further claim that he isn't liable for the punitive tax that comes after his citizenship is renounced.

I don't know, I'm not a tax lawyer, but it seems like it might be do-able if you have the kind of money it would take to fight the battle in tax court - and he certainly does.

As I said, US citizens are liable for taxes on income for 10 year after surrendering their citizenship, unless they surrender their citizenship "specifically" to avoid taxes. Then it's viewed as tax evasion and you go to prison. I wrote all this up here, when I was researching a similar move myself. But this is cap-gains not income, and Eduardo is a Brazilian citizen (at least partly) so I guess his people think he can make a fight of it. They'll probably settle with the government for a portion of what they think they're owed.

But I guess that isn't enough for Chuck Schumer. He wants anyone who has done something as evil and reprehensible as "Founding Facebook" to be punished more aggressively than that. That Chucky is a real piece of work, but at least when it comes to capitalism (and gun rights, and protecting the border, and a dozen other issues) you know where he stands. He's the kind of politician who would make a great totalitarian dictator.

%%%%%%%%%%UPDATE%%%%%%%%%%

The moral case here is pretty clear, and the Liberals have gotten it wrong again. If you read the ABC news comments you'll see that people support Eduardo's move by (my rough count) about 25 to 1. Those that don't are under the impression that Eduardo made his money at the expense of Americans, and he should therefore be forced to pay whatever the Americans want. This is an idiotic position, and is not how Economics works in the real world.

Which probably explains why people overwhelmingly support his move to limit his tax liability. They would all do it themselves if they could. Americans don't hate the rich, they want to be the rich. And if they get there, they don't want Chuck Schumer picking their pocket from 12,000 miles away.

All this really does is expose a little more of what the liberal mindset really is. It's an immoral code, based on envy, greed, the lust for power, and the desire to control other people's lives. You can do anything you want under liberalism, so long as it's no better than anyone else. If you do, you become a target like Eduardo Saverin.

Under the Democrats it's "From each according to the demands of the government, to each according to the way they vote, their race, gender, and whether they represent a key electoral demographic in a carefully selected swing state, or have acted as a bundler for the campaign."

Chuck Schumer is an immoral man. I just wish he wasn't so shameless about it.

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Since Schumer and his fellow Democrats are so determined to make this into a country where we put up walls to keep people in, I thought this might be a good time to remind everyone that we in NJ have our own "Exit Tax" as well. It's collected as a percentage of the gain on the home you sell in NJ. If you're a full time resident you can then claim it on your state tax return and get it back, but if you're moving out of state, they just keep it.

So Jim McGreevy and the NJ Democratic legislators actually beat Schumer to it. Chalk up one more first for the East Germany of the United States.