Thread: Socialists Denounce French Actors Leaving France for Tax Purposes; California vs. Fra

Thursday, December 13, 2012 11:13 AM

Socialists Denounce French Actors Leaving France for Tax Purposes; California vs. France; Patriotic to Pay Excess Taxes?

According to Socialist newspapers and politicians “to pay a tax is an act of solidarity, a patriotic act.” Those leaving France because of its uncompetitive tax rate see things differently.

Please consider Socialists Denounce Gérard Depardieu for Leaving France

Gérard Depardieu, one of France’s best-known actors, has been accused by the country’s Socialist government of lacking patriotism after he moved to Belgium apparently in a bid to avoid the taxes for which France is also renowned.

On Wednesday, Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault weighed in, calling Mr. Depardieu’s choice “rather pathetic.”

“He’s a great star, everyone loves him as an artist,” Mr. Ayrault told the France 2 television channel on Wednesday, but “to pay a tax is an act of solidarity, a patriotic act.”

To reduce the budget deficit and the country’s debt, Mr. Hollande has put in place a 75 percent marginal tax rate for incomes above 1 million euros, or $1.3 million — a largely symbolic measure that will affect only a few thousand individuals, he has said — and has announced additional taxes that are expected to raise 20 billion euros next year.

Residents [in Belgium] pay no wealth tax and no capital gains tax on stock sales. In France, residents are required to pay a 0.25 percent wealth tax on assets valued at more than 1.3 million euros; those with more than 3 million euros in assets pay twice that.

Mr. Depardieu will by no means be the only Frenchman in Néchin, where he has reportedly bought a home. Néchin’s mayor, Daniel Senesael, told the French news media that 27 percent of residents are French.

Bernard Arnault, the billionaire chief executive of the luxury group LVMH, was pilloried in the news media in September when it was revealed that he had requested Belgian citizenship.

Mr. Arnault said the request was not for tax purposes, but the left-leaning newspaper Libération featured a front-page headline that read, in polite translation, “Beat it, rich jerk!” (LVMH promptly pulled its advertising from the newspaper and Mr. Arnault filed a lawsuit charging the paper with public insult.)

On Tuesday, the newspaper featured Mr. Depardieu on its front page, along with an editorial deploring his “absence of moral sense” and insisting that the flight of the rich represents “a danger for democracy and solidarity.”

California vs. France

California citizens have renewed reason to vote with their feet following massive tax hikes approved in the November elections. For a synopsis, please see Taxifornia Lessons.

In case you missed it, the Bloomberg report $822,000 Worker Shows California Leads U.S. Pay Giveaway is a stunning, must see article on where those tax hikes will go (and it's not for the kids).

The article is well worth a read in entirety, so I offer no snips.

Patriotic to Pay Excess Taxes?

Is it a sign of solidarity or stupidity to pay more taxes than necessary? Is it an act of patriotism to do something you disagree with or is the real act of patriotism to protest?

While there may be other reasons influencing people's decisions to leave or stay, paying excess taxes for the sake of solidarity is complete nonsense.

By the way, for all his bitching and moaning, Warren Buffet does not pay excess taxes either. In his case, since he feels so strongly about this, perhaps the patriotic thing for him to do would be to voluntarily pay extra taxes to write down the federal debt.

In the case of California and France, the logical thing for taxpayers to do is "leave if you can", and there is nothing at all unpatriotic about such decisions. Indeed, for those who feel strongly that tax hikes are not the way to go, leaving in protest may actually be the patriotic thing to do.

Mike "Mish" Shedlock
Mish's Global Economic Trend Analysis



Mish's Global Economic Trend Analysis: Socialists Denounce French Actors Leaving France for Tax Purposes; California vs. France; Patriotic to Pay Excess Taxes?

Saturday, December 15, 2012 10:58 AM

EU Car Sales Drop 14th Consecutive Month; Car Sales Plunge 20.1% in Italy, 20.3% in Spain, 19.2% in France, 3.5% in Germany, Rise in UK


Car sales are up in the UK, but down 10% on average in the EU. Overall sales, including the UK, are down for the 14th consecutive month.

From Google Translate Car sales plunge another 10% in Europe and UK only grows.

In the markets of the European Union, in November, with the same computation of working days in November 2011, highlights the sharp rise of 11.3% for the UK, while other high-volume markets have reduced their records: 3.5% in Germany, 19.2% in France, 20.1% in Italy, and 20.3% in Spain.

From January to November, the scenario is similar, with the UK as the only major market expansion (+5.4%) and Germany (-1.7%), Spain (-12.6%), France (-13.8%) and Italy (-19.7%) in contraction.

The used passenger car market declined 5.6%

These are dismal numbers with pronounced deterioration in Spain, France, and Germany.

Mike "Mish" Shedlock
Mish's Global Economic Trend Analysis


Mish's Global Economic Trend Analysis: EU Car Sales Drop 14th Consecutive Month; Car Sales Plunge 20.1% in Italy, 20.3% in Spain, 19.2% in France, 3.5% in Germany, Rise in UK

Depardieu 'Shrugged'

Submitted by Tyler Durden on 12/16/2012 16:31 -0500

• Belgium
• France
• headlines

Via Emmanuel Martin, Executive Director of the Institute for Economic Studies-Europe (www.ies-europe.org) and editor of www.LibreAfrique.org.,

Last week the big story in French headlines has been the tax exile of Gerard Depardieu in Nechin, Belgium, half a mile from the French border. French PM Jean-Marc Ayrault called the French movie star’s behavior “minable” (pathetic). A socialist MP, Yann Galut, even suggested that M. Depardieu loses his French nationality. In an open letter in the Journal Du Dimanche on December 16, Depardieu, who famously starred as Obélix, the big Gallic fellow of Astérix, carrying menhirs on his back – and sometimes throwing them at the Romans, replies. With a taste of Ayn Rand’s famous character John Galt.

Gerard shrugged.

Depardieu begins by saying that what is pathetic is to call his behavior pathetic.

Although he does not want to justify the many reasons of his choice, he makes it clear that he leaves after paying 85% of taxes on his income this year and € 145 million through his entire life; He leaves because the French PM thinks that “success, creation and talent, in fact difference, must be punished”. He then reminds Jean-Marc Ayrault that he set up companies that employ 80 people. Depardieu says he is ready to give up his French passport and his “Social Security” (the French public health care system, which he claims he never used).

This letter is important.

First because thanks to a top actor, the categories of incentives and unintended (though highly expectable) consequences will probably enter the “consciousness area” of a statist French political class (right and left alike).

Imposing a 75% income tax above €1 million does have consequences on the incentives of the rich and creative people.

Mr Hollande and his team might call it “just” because, as the French President once famously said, he doesn’t “like the rich”, the fact is that one does not promote economic progress by hitting the creative and successful minds.

Those are obsolete collectivist policies based on envy and scapegoating: they are only effective at creating division and killing the goose with the golden egg, that is, generate more poverty. Not exactly “just” in the end.

Second because Depardieu stresses the fact that he is a European, a “citizen of the World”, and remains a “free man”.

He is effectively saying that thanks to globalization we are free to escape a government’s crushing fist.

Institutional competition, and especially tax competition is an essential feature of our liberty: it is crucial that people can “vote with their feet”. Of course European politicians, French ones especially, are too eager to suppress this liberty – again in the name of justice, harmonization, equality, solidarity and what have you. What that story also tells us is that should Europe become a “giant France”, it would be doomed. Unfortunately, recent efforts in the direction of more EU centralization do not carry optimism.

Now, to be completely fair on that “Depardieu shrugging”, the tiny issue is that state subsidies to the film industry in France probably indirectly helped the man to become famous and rich, even if overall he probably paid a lot more that he received, and in the end owed much to his personal talent.

Not a pure John Galt then. But a good start.

Open Letter to French PM Jean-Marc Ayrault (from Gerard Depardieu):

You say "pathetic"? As it is pathetic.

I was born in 1948, I started working at the age of 14 years as a printer, then as a warehouseman as dramatic artist. I always paid my taxes regardless of the rate under all governments.

At no time, I have failed in my duties. Historical films I participated reflect my love of France and its history.

Most illustrious characters that were expatriates me or left the country.

I unfortunately have nothing more to do here, but I continue to love the French public and with whom I shared so many emotions, I'm leaving because you consider that success, creativity, talent, actually The difference must be punished.

I do not ask to be approved, I could at least be respected.

All those who left France were not insulted as I am.

I do not have to justify the reasons for my choice, which are numerous and intimate.

I leave after paying, in 2012, 85% tax on my income. But I keep in mind that France was beautiful and I hope will remain.

I give you my passport and Social Security, which I've never used. We no longer the same country, I'm a true European, a citizen of the world, as my father has always taught.

I find pathetic the hard justice against my son William judged by judges who condemned any kid to three years in prison for two grams of heroin, when so many others escaped prison for acts otherwise more serious.

I do not blame all those cholesterol, hypertension, diabetes, or too much alcohol or those who sleep on their scooter: I'm one of them as your expensive media like both the repeat.

I never killed anybody, I do not think unworthy, I paid 145 million tax in forty-five years, I have 80 people working in companies that were created for them and which are managed by them.

I am not to complain or to brag, but I refuse the word "pathetic".

Who are you to judge me so I ask you Mr. Ayrault, Prime Minister Mr. Holland, I ask you, who are you? Despite my excesses, my appetite and my love life, I am a free being, sir, and I'll be polite.

Gérard Depardieu

Depardieu 'Shrugged' | ZeroHedge