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Comment by oijaf888 | Hacker News Reader

What wealth flight laws do countries with freely tradable currencies have? AFAIK I could move a million dollars from my bank account to a bank account in England with no issues.

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Perhaps, but I don't think the US has worries about wealth flight. I assume the countries that dominate this "economy" are Argentina, Cyprus, etc.

The US does have an expatriation tax[1] that is of concern for many. There was also a dramatic increase to the tax proposed as a result of Eduardo Saverin's expatriation before the Facebook IPO. Even though he hadn't been living or working in the US for some time prior, the US imposes taxes on all moneys a citizen earns, regardless of where they are living, or where that money was earned.

Beyond that, expatriation from the US is at an all-time high[3], and the rumor is that it's related to the adoption of Obama's progressive taxation schema.

[1] - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Expatriation_tax#United_States

[2] - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ex-PATRIOT_Act

[3] - http://www.thefiscaltimes.com/Articles/2013/11/18/US-Taxpaye...

Wait, which "progressive taxation schema" is this? The expiration of the top 1% of the Bush tax cuts?

That, the "Buffet Rule", the reduction on charitable donations, the increase on capital gains, and his proposed "Grand Bargain", which lowers rates, but eliminates enough loopholes that it is at least expected to raise the effective tax rate for corporations.

Fair enough, but the "Buffet Rule" hasn't happened, and almost certainly won't during his term.

As I don't net more than $1 million a year, I hadn't followed it very closely, but I admit that I'm a little surprised. For some reason I thought it had most certainly passed and been enacted.

Thanks for the correction.

Well, I expect the IRS would want to make sure you were properly declaring that and paying the relevant taxes on it. No idea how it happens in practice, but given the interests of the parties involved, I'm pretty sure it does.

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