Wednesday, January 2, 2013

The New Taxes

When France announced a 75% tax on the rich French actor Depardieu announced he was moving to Belgium and giving up his French citizenship. People who are retired or about to retire might not be able to reorganize their lives for these new taxes for a variety of reasons. In order for Anyone to keep enough money to live on after retirement a whole lot of short term and long term financial planning is always involved. So, when a whole lot of new taxes increase almost everyone is harmed by it because it requires a completely different strategy for survival for everyone rich or poor.

Some people might think people aren't being patriotic to reorganize their finances but often people simply can't survive if they leave their finances the way they were before large tax changes like now. And you are going to see at least 50% of the upper end of resources scrambling in the next 6 months and accountants and financial planners are going to be happy with all the new fees for consultation so people can find a way to survive the present taxes.

So, even among the top 50% of incomes there will be those who go bankrupt from the new taxes and there will be those who survive the new taxes by reorganizing.

The more freedom people have to reorganize their investments the more likely they won't be forced into bankruptcy and onto the streets by the new taxes.

One of the problems for example, is an increase of inheritance taxes. It has raised up to 40% from 35 percent. However, what this really means in real time is that when someone inherits for a few years they actually pay 112% of normal taxes for a few years. My thought is that it is a way for the government to collect the whole estate by the inheritor going bankrupt in the process of inheriting.

So, unless people have really good lawyers that they can trust and actually have a business college education there is about a  50% chance that they will lose everything while trying to inherit a friend's or relatives estate. Another problem with this is say the estate is a business or a farm. So, the government wants 40% of a farm or business. Then if you give them that you have to sell or lose the farm or business. And then all the business write-offs that may have made that farm or business a "Cash Cow" are lost and even if the farm or business is sold to pay for the taxes, the family farm or business that might have been owned by and having supported an extended family for 100 years or more is lost. And any money received will also be taxed right out of the ball park and the family business and family farm will be lost to everyone as well as their livelihoods. It has been like this since the Great Depression and FDR promised he would end inheritance tax but died before he could fulfill his promise. But, inheritance tax has ended more family farms and family businesses than any other one thing since the Great Depression.

The government likes the income it receives killing businesses and farms in this way but it destroys many many extended families and their lives and futures in the process which I think is wrong. What do you think?









No comments: