Johnny Depp on tax avoidance by the mega rich
Posted by Christie Malry on November 7, 2011 at 9:30 am
Johnny Depp on his strange living arrangements:
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."
Is there anyone alive who still doesn't understand that the interaction between national tax systems can sometimes create perverse effects, and that rich, highly mobile individuals will seek to minimise these effects as best they can?
Will #ukuncut now boycott or occupy Hollywood in protest?
Depp ignores or intentionally misleads with one thing, though: what tax he pays in France would be deductible from his US taxes. In other words, he would only have to pay the higher income tax of the two countries, but not both.
Still, obviously, having to pay the higher French taxes is a clear incentive not to becmoe a French resident. A useful reminder of the double standards of people who are happy to work for higher taxes - until they have to pay themselves.
I imagine what he really wants to avoid is the Impôt de Solidarité sur la Fortune, or the French wealth tax. Up to 1.8% annually on your worldwide assets, merci beaucoup.
Still, I was amused at how such a popular figure could so brazenly talk about avoiding tax.
With regard to French taxes; that is why the health service, education, roads, transport system, are the best, if not some of the best in the developed world. The US infrastructure is broken. Why, because nobody is paying taxes in the US.
Plenty pay taxes in the US. Just the taxes are not spent wisely.
You really don't want to get done by the IRS for not paying taxes.
he also does not point out that if you are a US citizen you pay US tax on your income whether you happen to live in the US or not...and you don't even get to vote for the privilege of paying those taxes.