So a little bit less than they pay right now in the US? The latest CBO data has the average Federal tax rate at around 31% for both the top 1% and top 0.01% cohorts [1].
So what would be a single reason for person with $100MM of wealth to give $25MM away to wasteful, corruptive government?
What kind of benefits the person is gaining by buying $25MM worth of taxes?
I thought so too.
Give that person a chance to reinvest these money into local economy, growing productive businesses instead of slapping the "filthy rich" label and suddenly there is a lots of capital are used for everyone's benefits instead of escaping.
To add $25MM to anti-corruption budgets? Sure, governments are to varying degrees, quite corrupt, but isn't that in part due to the people with leverage and power (aka money)?
Example: Rich people > Shit newspapers > Misinformed populace > Shit political choices > Shit government > Corruption > Rich people now have more money.
>What kind of benefits the person is gaining by buying $25MM worth of taxes?
Hmm there's so many hypotheticals there.
Perhaps they may fund the roads this persons company uses.
Or the foodstamps this persons underpayed workers rely on.
Perhaps they sustain the people that pay into his rentseeking scheme.
Perhaps that's not the question you should be asking because not a whole lot of people give a damn about this persons 25 million staying in his pocket.
(This person him/herself being part of this 'not a whole lot of people')
and a whole lot of people on the other hand would rather this person be incentivized to avoid these taxes by investing in R&D and/or increasing the wages of the people he depends on so as to benefit society and to stimulate the economy.
They are contributing to the long term stability and prosperity of the society that provided the very environment that enabled them establish their wealth in the first place. Pay it forward as it were.
Unfortunately many people don't appear to think like that. Or are willfully blind/ ignorant. Take your pick.
If you fully want to renounce US citizenship, sure. You'll pay a hefty exit tax in doing so.
You can already do this, though. Monaco exists. That folks like Bezos, Musk, and Gates stick around in the US indicates some intangible benefits here that justify paying some tax.
The $100MM is the benefit. So they are giving back some of the benefit they already received. Yeah they call it waste when they have to give back but the true waste is the policies that allowed the $100MM in light of the overall inequality.
People who make $100MM are no smarter than those that don’t, I mean Einstein didn’t make that type of money right? It’s not merit either, it’s simply money...under our system money makes money, concentration of capital doesn’t benefit everyone it benefits the person with the capital.
Consider wealth management itself, you want to diversify your investments, you would never put 90% of your wealth into .1% of the assets you own. The rich know and live by this rule, well that same rule applies to society, you don’t want .1% controlling 90% of the wealth so investment is determined by .1% of the population. You want the wealth diversified and in the hands of many so no single person controls investment.
