Ever heard right wingers spreading the story of Johnny Depp leaving France due to taxes?

[alp227]

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:

Depp is not unreasonable to complain about the potential taxation situation. He genuinely would end up paying almost his entire income in tax if he became a French resident. This is because America, unlike any sane country, demands all its citizens pay US income tax wherever in the world they live or work. And in Depp's case the income concerned would be high enough that they'd keep track. So he can't avoid paying US taxes – and French taxes on top would genuinely take care of most or even all of the rest. Indeed, I could imagine he might end up with tax liabilities higher than his gross income.

(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.