Wealthy Americans are emigrating

The brain drain from Ohio is bad enough, but it gets worse, as John Gaver writes in DumpDC. He shows that up to two million of the wealthiest Americans have left our shores and have no intention of returning! Why? Because of the tax burden. While there is an expatriate tax credit on the books, many decide not to even bother filing a tax return. There is a risk in failing to do so -- but only if one wants to come back.

The feds are so worried that in 2008, they slapped an exit tax on Americans obtaining residency abroad. Mr. Gaver comments:

A true exit tax is considered to be one of the most ominous signs of a desperate government. The 10-year expatriation tax, passed in 1996, was bad enough. But, a pure exit tax would be far worse. But if you are waiting for that to happen, before you believe that we are in a world of trouble, then you can stop waiting. In fact, if you were waiting, then like so many other Americans, you missed it. In 2008, Congress passed and George W. Bush signed into law, the first ever US Exit Tax, as a part of the Heroes Earnings Assistance & Relief Tax Act (Public Law 110-245, at Sec. 301).

Obviously, they do not buy into the idea that the United States is the land of the free. When will the rest of us get that memo?