Nicolas Sarkozy, the former president of France who was defeated for re-election in May, may become the latest high-profile rich guy to flee the country over the 75 percent millionaires tax according to multiple media reports.
Sarkozy and his wife, supermodel Carla Bruni , are reportedly moving to London where he will run a new $1 billion investment firm.
The French news outlet Mediapart broke the story about Sarkozy’s purported relocation to the UK according to the London Telegraph :
“[Sarkozy] has been using his new job as a highly paid international conference speaker to try and stump up capital for the new venture … The move would make the 57-year old Right-winger the latest in a tide of high-profile French figures to circumvent taxes hikes introduced by his Socialist successor, Francois Hollande.”
London’s Daily Mail reports that the alleged plan was revealed when French police — who are investigating Sarkozy in connection with a corruption inquiry — discovered computer files related to the move while searching his Paris mansion.
Sarkozy would have no hope for a political comeback in France if this report is true, and he has issued a denial of sorts through intermediaries according to the Daily Mail :
“Mr. Sarkozy has recently had meetings with numerous movers and shakers in the world of high finance during high-profile trips to places like Qatar and London. But today Mr. Sarkozy played down the Mediapar t reports through his aides, with one saying that they were the result of ‘intellectual constructs.’ “
You’ll recall that actor Gerard Depardieu created huge headlines when he recently became a tax exile.
Regardless of one’s personal opinion about very rich individuals, raising taxes to a confiscatory level — whether in France or here — at the upper end of the income scale generally poses two contradictions: (a) high-end people tend to have lawyers and accountants and political connections to find tax-avoidance loopholes, and (b) because of (a), tax-hungry politicians unwilling to cut wasteful government spending tend to come after the middle class eventually anyway.
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