It’s cool, David Geffen is OK with it.
With the new year, big earners are confronting a 51.9 percent federal-state income tax hit on earnings over $1 million, the result of a confluence of new tax-the-rich levies imposed by California and Congress in the closing days of 2012. That is officially the highest in the nation. And at 13.3 percent, the top-tier California income tax is, in addition to being higher than any other state, the steepest it has been since World War II.
Though no one expects traffic jams at 30,000 feet as panicked millionaires make for the state line, the wealthy are once again grumbling about abandoning California for less punishing tax climates. Phil Mickelson, the golfer who collects purses in excess of $1 million, suggested that he might become the latest in a line of athletes and entertainment figures, among them Tiger Woods, who left California for states like Florida, which has no personal income tax.
It may very well be that the very wealthy here may not flee in droves, and the article’s general tone is that everything is going to be OK. It’s a gloss-over for the real problem: middle class business people are being squeezed out of existence because their tax and regulatory burdens are oppressive (I set up an LLC here 2 years ago, believe me, I know whence I speak.). And taxing all of the uber-wealthy here to death isn’t going to change that.
At issue here is “Whose money is it anyways?”. Gov’t officials seem to think that they are ENTITLED to whatever amount of a persons income that they deem acceptable.
Indeed. And no “progressive,” however hard one presses him, will give a straight answer to “What’s the maximum tax rate a government should be allowed to institute?” or “What do you think is a ‘fair share’?”
I don’t remember the name of the case, but there was a Supreme Court decision some years ago that held that there is no Constitutional limit to how high taxes may rise. That’s quite compatible with another decision, in which the Court ruled that conscription is Constitutional…because it’s just another way of paying taxes!
Yes, you may well shudder.
Obama senior postulated that it would be acceptable to tax 100% if basic were provided by the government.
A couple of nit wits in London floated the idea the British citizen’s pay be sent to the government and the government would remit to the worker what the government decided they should have.
That there was a word for that system and it was already known caused them to slink out of sight.