How Much Do You Hate Paying Taxes?

Many decades ago when I was the accounting manager for an insurance company, another manager was constantly complaining about the company and its administrative policies. After a couple of years of being a sympathetic ear, I asked, "If you really dislike working here, why aren't you looking for a job somewhere else?" A few months later, he had moved on to apparently greener pastures.

For those who are seriously unhappy about the taxes they must pay to any high tax state, they are free to move to a number of states that have much lower taxes. Florida, Texas and Alaska are fairly high on that list. Moving from one state to another is rarely perceived as being unpatriotic or otherwise immoral.

When people move to the U.S. from countries that have even higher taxes than we do, no one here calls them disparaging names because they left their country of birth. We actually applaud them for coming to our land of liberty. (That's assuming they came through legal channels, of course.)

But somehow the idea of leaving the USA because of high taxes is perceived by many of us as a dastardly act of betrayal that is close to treason. But why?

I suspect that part of the reason is that we have been conditioned to think of our country a lot like the way we think of our religion. Or, as a minister once told me, "If you don't believe as I do, then you haven't prayed enough." Clearly, he was convinced his religion was the only right religion. And many Americans feel the same way about our country.

This feeling is reinforced by our empathy for the men and women in the military who are risking and often losing their life or limbs in defense of our country.

But the children of the Third Reich were conditioned to feel the same way about their country. The youngsters of Communist Russia believed their country was best. The Japanese during the Second World War believed their country was superior to all others. And so it goes from country to country, religion to religion and even from school to school.

Different people have different priorities and values. Some value personal freedom. Some value economic freedom and freedom from what is perceived to be excessive taxes. If we are to encourage immigrants who wish to live here, we should also encourage emigrants to find what they value the most, wherever they can.

Charles Adams, author of "For Good and Evil: The Impact of Taxes on the Course of Civilization" contends that "The list of notables who have fled their homeland to avoid heavy taxation would read like an international Who's Who. Flight is the number one device used by wealthy people to avoid heavy taxation."

If we value freedom, then we must accept the right of anyone to be free to search elsewhere for lower taxes, fewer regulations or more opportunity.

For those who are truly unhappy with the current burden of U.S. taxes, expatriation may be the best way for them to find happiness. From a tax perspective, expatriating eliminates most of the need for "tax engineering", also known as tax planning. It can also eliminate nearly all of the time consuming and frustrating tax forms and other disclosures that are required by the U.S. government. Of course, there are other countries in the world that impose higher taxes and that are more intrusive than the U.S., but there are also many countries that are like some of our states. They do not impose an income tax and they do not intrude into the financial affairs of their residents.

Vern