I joked back in 2010 that Barack Obama had a very simple flat tax proposal.
But as you can see, sometimes simple isn’t the same as good.
Well, satire too often becomes reality in a world of greedy and corrupt politicians who think class-warfare is an acceptable guide to tax policy.
I say this because thousands of French taxpayers now are being subject to this satirical Obama flat tax.
Here are some of the grotesque details from a Reuters report.
More than 8,000 French households’ tax bills topped 100 percent of their income last year, the business newspaper Les Echos reported on Saturday, citing Finance Ministry data. …President Francois Hollande’s Socialist government imposed the tax surcharge last year, shortly after taking office… The government has been forced to redraft a proposed bill to levy a temporary 75 percent tax on earnings over 1 million euros, which had been one of Hollande’s campaign pledges. …Since then, a top administrative court has determined that a marginal tax rate higher than 66.66 percent on a single household risked being considered as confiscatory by the council.
Ironically, President Hollande already made a commitment that no taxpayers should have to surrender more than 80 percent of their incomes, but I guess that promise didn’t mean much.
After all, this is the guy who equates higher taxes with patriotism.
No wonder successful people are fleeing the country.
If you want to understand real tax reform, click here.
And here’s my video describing why the right kind of flat tax is a good idea.
This topic is particularly meaningful to me since I’m in the middle of the Free Market Road Show and I’ve been five flat tax nations – Bulgaria, Romania, Kosovo, Macedonia, and Albania – in the past 36 hours.
Too bad there’s little reason to hope that America will ever be part of the flat tax club.
P.S. I guess it’s good that the French court thinks that a 66.66 percent tax is “confiscatory.” But isn’t that true of any tax – at any rate – that is used to fund illegitimate activities?
