Eduardo Saverin, one of the founders of Facebook, officially defriended the United States in September, giving up his American citizenship for the more tax-friendly residency status of Singapore.
Mr. Saverin, who was born in Brazil and has lived in Singapore since 2010, plans to remain in the Asian island nation indefinitely. Singapore has a maximum personal income tax rate of 20 percent and no taxes on capital gains. He gained American citizenship in 1998.
A spokesman for Mr. Saverin insisted his client did not renounce his citizenship for financial reasons. “I have worked with him for over a year, and that never came up,”? said Tom Goodman, the spokesman. “Obviously, it was a big decision, but he’s making all these investments in Europe, Asia and the U.S. It just seemed a lot simpler.”?
Eduardo Saverin, one of the founders of Facebook, officially defriended the United States in September, giving up his American citizenship for the more tax-friendly residency status of Singapore.
Mr. Saverin, who was born in Brazil and has lived in Singapore since 2010, plans to remain in the Asian island nation indefinitely. Singapore has a maximum personal income tax rate of 20 percent and no taxes on capital gains. He gained American citizenship in 1998.
A spokesman for Mr. Saverin insisted his client did not renounce his citizenship for financial reasons. “I have worked with him for over a year, and that never came up,”? said Tom Goodman, the spokesman. “Obviously, it was a big decision, but he’s making all these investments in Europe, Asia and the U.S. It just seemed a lot simpler.”?
I can understand why someone would want to do it. The worldwide tax liability is a bummer. Singapore is pretty rough as far as individual liberties go, though. To each his own, I guess.
With the coming tax hike of capital gains from 15% to 20%, PLUS the ObamaCare surcharge, we're about to see a capital gains rate of 23.8%. That is big, especially if you happen to be a founder of Facebook.
Not only that, but the top dividend tax rate is about to go from 15% to 43.4%. Is that going to kill stocks? (Certainly, best-case, it will cause malinvestment...)
