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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsEver heard right wingers spreading the story of Johnny Depp leaving France due to taxes?
Last edited Fri Sep 14, 2012, 09:11 PM - Edit history (3)
A conservative friend posted on Facebook the story about Johnny Depp leaving France over the new French tax rate to call Depp a liberal Hollywood hypocrite. It's an old story from Nov. 2011 that now has more attention this month because Daniel J. Mitchell, finance columnist at townhall.com brought it up. From a profile of Depp in The Guardian:
What? Hang on a minute; why did he leave France? He makes a sour noise, part grunt, part hurrumph. "Cos France wanted a piece of me. They wanted me to become a permanent resident. Permanent residency status which changes everything. They just want," and he mimes peeling off notes in his palm. "Dough. Money."
If Depp spends more than 183 days in France, he explains indignantly, he'd have to start paying income tax. "I'm certainly not ready to give up my American citizenship. You don't have to give up your American citizenship," he adds sarcastically, but then he'd have to pay tax in both countries, "so you essentially work for free."
And all of a sudden, he sounds exactly like your average corporate Middle America multimillionaire anti-government, anti-tax and apparently oblivious to the part these twin monstrous affronts might play in creating a country where he doesn't have to worry about being mugged by crack dealers on every street.
One commenter at the Guardian website wrote:
(comment redacted, due to correction below)
How would you respond to this new RW talking point? I would say it's his own choice not to be a permanent resident of France as he divides his time between the US, France, and wherever else he owns property.
dems_rightnow
(1,956 posts)When you pay taxes in a foreign country, the US gives you a tax credit on Form 1116. God..........
NYC_SKP
(68,644 posts)loli phabay
(5,580 posts)taxes, when i retire i probuably wouldnt bother to much to renounce it.
jenw2
(374 posts)he'd end-up paying nothing.
I don't understand why someone here is defending the fact that the rich pay almost nothing.
alp227
(32,037 posts)MrScorpio
(73,631 posts)Why can't that be the main reason he's leaving France?
alp227
(32,037 posts)He bought a home in LA for his ex http://bottomline.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/09/14/13849177-celebrity-real-estate-johnny-depp-buys-home-for-ex
Honeycombe8
(37,648 posts)#2 - Depp has owned a castle in L.A. since 1995. He may own more houses there.
#3 - He owns a mansion in Venice.
#4 - He owns a vineyard and mansion in the south of France.
#5 - He may or may not still have a home in Paris.
#6 - His kids go to school in America. His parents and siblings live in America.
#7 - He is an American citizen.
#8 - He is mega-famous and has a gentle nature. He said he likes to live away from the hoopla, papparazzi, and violence.
#9 - It doesn't make him conservative or greedy not to want to pay taxes in two countries. Who would want to do that? That's stupid.
#10 - He is apparently content with paying the low American taxes and is not out fighting to prevent his American taxes from going up.
#11 - He could simply give up his American citizenship and pay just France's taxes. But as he said, he's not ready to give up his American citizenship.
It's like taking the mortgage deduction on your taxes. It's not conservative or greedy to take it. It would be stupid not to.
Paying your fair share but not wanting to pay double is very different from not wanting to pay your fair share in a reasonable progressive tax country, such as in America.
truebluegreen
(9,033 posts)until you characterized America as a "reasonable progressive tax country." We're not. Given the intricacies of the tax code, the system is regressive.
Cicada
(4,533 posts)Depp probably would get a full US credit - the foreign tax credit - for French tax on doubly-taxed income.
So his US tax on such doubly taxed income would be zero. But I think France does plan a 75% french tax. There IS a point where the Laffer curve kicks in and this may be the point.
burrowowl
(17,641 posts)be taxed by France and the US by the US. However the US has a 184 day thing and could tax the French income
WinkyDink
(51,311 posts)truebluegreen
(9,033 posts)earned from foreign sources (provided local taxes are paid), the remainder of that income plus everything earned in the US would be subject to US taxes--whether or not one spent time in the US. The US is perhaps the only country to tax income by country of origin (yours, not the income) rather than country of residence.