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10.01.2008 0

The Greatest Toll Ever

  • On: 10/21/2008 22:28:03
  • In: Taxes

  • Look out Californians! A ballot proposal is underway which would extract hundreds of billions of dollars from the wallets of wealthy California residents. The measure calls for additional taxes—to the tune of 35 percent—to be slapped onto incomes of over $500,000 ($150,000 if single, $350,000 if head-of-household).

    According to the Tax Foundation, the additional tax rate would cause an individual with a $1,000,000 income (and three-fourths of it taxable) to pay 61 percent in taxes—$613,000! By comparison, they would pay $350,000 (35 percent) under current laws.

    For taxpayers tempted to leave the state, this measure would put on the brakes with a 36.8 percent “exit tax”—which, by the way, would apply to deaths as well. The current federal estate tax (at least through 2009) is 45 percent. Do the math.

    As if that was not bad enough, California residents will pay a 55 percent, “one-time” (ha!) fee on assets valued at over $20 million. And—to top it off—the money will be used to purchase controlling shares in certain major California corporations, to allow control over their environmental policies.

    And you thought the current state of taxes was bad.

    The only good news in this mix is that the sponsor of this proposal has only 4 months to collect the nearly 700,000 signatures required for the measure to hit voters on Election Day, November 2010. Also, the exit tax will have to undergo the scrutiny of the courts to determine if it is in fact unconstitutional.

    The truly sad part of this whole proposal is the fact that people just don’t get the fact that the government cannot solve problems by merely taking more money. If this measure were to pass, one can only imagine the myriads of business executives and well-paid, high-skill workers who would relocate before it went into effect.

    The massive increase in revenue presently foreseen would never materialize, leaving the population with the dubious combination of high taxes and low benefits.


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