This 'Punish That Cocksure Little Facebook Twerp' Legislation Sounds Delightful

Uh oh, Chuck Schumer saw something in the papers the other day and is already legislating. What dumb caffeine product is it today? Gross candy alcohol caffeine or inhalable powder caffeine? Well look at that, it's not even a funny consumer product at all -- he's going after Eduardo Saverin, the "good guy" from the Facebook movie who's still so awful that he renounced his U.S. citizenship to live in tax- and regulation-free Singapore. Schumer, working with Bob Casey, didn'tquitename it the "Fuck That Awful Facebook Guy Act of 2012." Instead, it's the "Ex-Patriot Act," which is still appropriately catty. This is a wonderful bill that will never pass!

Gold star for the day, you two! We need more bills picking on individual assholes who add no value to anything but somehow have several billion dollars:

Democratic Sens. Charles Schumer (N.Y.) and Bob Casey Jr. (Pa.) announced legislation on Thursday designed to punish people who renounce their citizenship in order to dodge taxes.

Their bill, the Ex-Patriot Act, is a direct response to Eduardo Saverin, the co-founder of Facebook, who renounced his U.S. citizenship last year.

“Eduardo Saverin wants to de-friend the United States of America just to avoid paying taxes. We aren't going to let him get away with it,” Schumer said at a press conference Thursday where he announced new legislation.

The citizenship move will save Saverin, who was born in Brazil and now lives in Singapore, an estimated $67 million to $100 million in taxes. That amount could increase if Facebook's stock price rises. [...]

Under the bill, anyone who renounces their citizenship and has a net worth of $2 million or an average income tax liability of $148,000 over the last five years will be presumed to be trying to dodge taxes. The person can appeal that designation to the Internal Revenue Service.

But if the IRS determines a person gave up their passport for primarily tax reasons, all of the person's U.S. assets will be taxed at 30 percent, double the usual rate of 15 percent.

As TPM pointed out yesterday, though, there's already a law in the books that allows the DoJ to deny reentry to "former citizens who renounced citizenship to avoid taxation." Schumer and Casey's law beefs up the punishments. Saverin and his lawyers may not have known about all of this, or simply thought no one would make a fuss, because now the punk is scrambling to say this had nothing to do with taxation:  

He professes ignorance about his taxes and refuses to discuss his finances. “This had nothing to do with taxes,” he insisted. “I was born in Brazil, I was an American citizen for about 10 years. I thought of myself as a global citizen.”

Jesus Christ. Why only double the tax rate on U.S. assets to this liar? The idea that a billionaire would renounce his U.S. citizenship and declare himself a proud Singaporean without even thinking about the tax implications is a joke. Every megarich individual and corporation in the United States keep private jets hidden in their headquarters to be used exclusively for that day when taxes go up half a percent on investment or profit and they all pop off to Singapore. Goldman Sachs has already decamped. The other big asshole in the news these days, JP Morgan Chase CEO and tiresome whiner Jamie Dimon, is -- or was, before his bank lost $2 billion following his years of bitching about new, modest regulations -- always playing the Singapore Card. Oh, you want collateral posted on massive derivative trades from now on? SINGAPORE wouldn't make us do that... See, Singapore is a "thing" right now, among the rich. And this Facebook joker's escape presents a golden opportunity to pass a "The next one of you to 'Go Singapore' gets his ass kicked" emergency act.

Then again, let them leave. Encourage them to leave. Let them keep all of their money. Anything to get rid of them.

[ The Hill ]