Going Galt in the UK

It will surprise the folks on the left, and in fact, most will deny it happens at all, but at some point taxation becomes so burdensome, that the producers bail.

This is just the latest example of the producers moving to avoid a tax. (H/T RVO reader Chris on this one)

Britain’s financiers and entrepreneurs are quitting the UK at a rate of 10 a week to avoid Labour’s new 50% taxes.

The burgeoning exodus threatens to deepen a £178 billion black hole in the public finances and leave middle-class voters with higher taxes for years to come, figures obtained from Companies House reveal.

The number of directors of British businesses registered as living in the low-tax centres of Jersey, Guernsey or the Isle of Man has risen by almost 500 to 6,729 in the past 12 months.

It’s not just the UK. I’ve been compiling a list of these kind of stories.

Early data from New York show the higher tax rates for the wealthy have yielded lower-than-expected state wealth. Gov. David Paterson, who had always warned targeting the rich could backfire, fears that’s just what happened.

Paterson said last week that revenues from the income tax increases and other taxes enacted in April are running about 20 percent less than anticipated.

The concern about millionaire flight has prompted some states, including New York, New Jersey and California, to increase the highest tax rates only temporarily. For New York, it’s the second temporary increase for high earners since 2001.

Now might be a good time to revisit Governor Patterson from “Morning Joe”.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a3ZxmURTLSs

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Jim Vicevich

Jim is a veteran broadcaster and conservative/libertarian blogger with more than 25 years experience in TV and radio. Jim's was the long-term host of The Jim Vicevich Show on WTIC 1080 in Hartford from 2004 through 2019. Prior to radio, Jim worked as a business and financial reporter for NBC30 - the NBC owned TV station in Hartford - and as business editor at WFSB-TV in Hartford for 14 years while earning six Emmy nominations and three Telly Awards.

1 Comment

  1. Dimsdale on December 14, 2009 at 7:24 am

    It is no different from having skin in the game: if you aren't making a profit, what's the point?

     

    For the government to arbitrarily come in and confiscate your earnings (there is a word that you will never hear from the government: earnings.  They can call it contributions, but never earnings) for their own benefit is parasitism, pure and simple, and like the situation when there are too many parasites on the host, it eventually sickens and dies.

     

    The Congressional tapeworms are doing their best to kill the host.   My apologies to honest tapeworms and their families everywhere for comparing you to the likes of Chris Dodd.



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