The US has extradition agreements with over 100 jurisdictions. Usually, these cover any type of criminal activity punishable in BOTH jurisdictions with jail terms of a minimum of one year. Unfortunately, tax fraud and evasion usually qualifies for most jurisdictions.
I believe they automatically (!) assume you give up your citizenship for reasons of tax avoidance if either a) your annual income is $200k + b) your net worth is $2m+ Ironic, isn't it. They pass this "hero act" in 2008, hide the "fuck the rich tax dodgers" paragraph in there and screw over exactly those people over that actually are likely to leave the country for tax reasons, because they have enough assets and enough tax dollars at stake. It's not like a burger flipper earning $7 an hour at Wendy's is going to consider living in St. Barth so he saves $250 in taxes a month. Those guys' slave collars are firmly in place already. Now the remaining 2% also are chained to Uncle Sam. Nice.
the irs link that someone posted is outdated. again, the 10 year rule no longer applies. search for 'heart act' on mondaq... there's a few good articles on there that review it. any good law journal would also work.
The IRS link is still relevant, it does not contradict the 'Heart Act' http://www.mwe.com/index.cfm/fuseac...t_id/36c3cb82-e7f9-4651-9668-f986d5f73e58.cfm Government links: Summary of Federal Income Tax Changes 2008 http://www.ftb.ca.gov/law/legis/08FedTax.pdf Here is the House of Representatives Technical explanation of the Heart Act http://www.house.gov/jct/x-44-08.pdf The ten year rule applies if you stay in the US for longer than 30 days in any year of those ten years and you will be taxed worldwide for that year, in addition you still must pay the exit tax. http://www.irs.gov/businesses/small/international/article/0,,id=97245,00.html
Those guys' slave collars are firmly in place already. Now the remaining 2% also are chained to Uncle Sam. Nice. Very good comparison!
Paying a 15-25% tax only on your capital gains is not exactly a "slave collar". It's the potential taxation after you leave that would be described in that fashion. If you can leave, pay 15-25% capital gains (which could be 0-20% of net worth depending on your situation), give up citizenship, then pay nothing in future, that is a bargain. You will pay a one-off 0-20% hit, whereas in most of the civilised world you pay more than 20% of income & gains *every single year* in taxes. Also don't forget that earning potential is far higher in the USA than in places like Canada, UK, France, Germany etc. That's why despite US taxes, the Forbes list is dominated by US citizens.
The de-facto slave collar for most is the 30 day visiting rule. It's 179 days in (most of) Europe. Thousands of expats pay next to nothing in taxes by living 180 days in Switzerland (lump-sum taxation) or Monte Carlo (zero taxes) and the rest of the year in their original home country. No 10 year waiting period. I wouldn't be surprised to see EU wide changes to taxation (residence vs. citizenship based) over the coming years.
for a Trader I guess it doesnt matter, unless one really screws up the formalities and ends up on some black list.
Maybe people's blinders will start to fall off a little - - - we are in one big Plantation working as wage/tax/debt slaves for a small group of oligarchs - - - who make up the rules ('laws') which apply to us, but not to them. - - When things go to pot, they don't want too many of you slaves to go jumping ship. As someone said - - - there are two ways to make a living. One way is by producing something - the economic method. The second is by stealing from others, ultimately through threat of force - the political method. The oligarchs arrogance is amazing. - - Of course the Demo-publican dopes think all is great as long as the plantation owner is fronted by the politician/lawyer/liar with whatever letter (D or R) that theyve been brainwashed into supporting by the oligarch owned media. Its easy to pay off some 'intellectual' to spout off whatever rubbish it takes to further b.s. the drones who will cheer when 'their guy' is 'elected' next time around - - - and screws them over the same way as the last guy did. Check out "The Politics of Obedience" by de la Boetie it can be found at http://www.mises.org