Let me be clear, Mr. Saverin is no different than many of the wealthy in America trying to avoid paying their fair share in taxes. His case is just exacerbated in that absent America he would likely neither have gotten as successful as he did or might not even be alive.
It is time that the middle class call these guys out. While the middle class pay for the military that ensure they have a safe country, an educational system that ensures they have competent employees, build out roads, bridges, utilities, and other infrastructures needed to transport and conduct their business, invest in much of the research they capitalize, and purchase their goods, they are willing to throw America away to save a dollar, They refuse to understand that their vast wealth is a product of an aberration in our capitalist system as opposed to some superior intellect.
The reality is much of this class fit the definitions of parasites perfectly. It should be noted that the scientist, engineer, teacher, doctor, etc. provide the intellect that drives the innovation and services in this country as the titans of finance extract the wealth from the manipulation of said intellect, innovation, and service through capital allocation. Remember, they produce nothing consummate with their wealth.
These guys should thank their lucky stars that Americans still have not yet found a more equitable and fair way to define individual’s worth and as such their rightful compensation. Just like the painter can sell a blank canvas or in-artful strokes as a work of art until the masses wake up, so will the Saverins of the world.
They should be quiet and enjoy the unfair distribution of income and wealth. After all Americans will wake up and they will eventually take it all back and ensure that it is all normalized based on real worth.
The selfish un-patriotism of these guys is shameful. PERIOD.
When Eduardo Saverin was 13, his family discovered that his name had turned up on a list of victims to be kidnapped by Brazilian gangs. Saverin’s father was a wealthy businessman in São Paulo, and it was inevitable that he’d attract this kind of unwanted attention. Now the family had to make a permanent decision. They hastily arranged a move out of the country. And of all the places in the world they could move to, the Saverin family saw only one option. They took their talents to Miami.
Would it be too much to say that America saved Eduardo Saverin? Probably. Maybe that’s just too overwrought. The Saverins were just another in a long line of immigrants who’d come to America for the opportunity it affords—the opportunity, among other things, to not have to worry that your child will be kidnapped just because you’ve become wealthy.
Just because his parents moved here doesn’t mean Eduardo Saverin owes America anything, right?
Yet if you study the trajectory of Saverin’s life—the path that took him from being an immigrant kid to a Harvard student to an instant billionaire to the subject of an Oscar-winning motion picture—it emerges as a uniquely American story. At just about every step between his landing in Miami and his becoming a co-founder of Facebook, you find American institutions and inventions playing a significant part in his success.
Would Eduardo Saverin have been successful anywhere else? Maybe, but not as quickly, and not as spectacularly. It was only thanks to America—thanks to the American government’s direct and indirect investments in science and technology; thanks to the U.S. justice system; the relatively safe and fair investment climate made possible by that justice system; the education system that educated all of Facebook’s workers, and on and on—it was only thanks to all of this that you know anything at all about Eduardo Saverin today.
Now comes news that Saverin has decided to renounce his U.S. citizenship, most likely to avoid a large long-term tax bill on his winnings in the Facebook IPO. Saverin owns about 4 percent of Facebook stock. By renouncing his citizenship last fall, well in advance of the IPO, Saverin will pay an “exit tax” on his assets as they were valued then. But he’ll pay no tax on income derived from stock sales in the future—that’s because he now lives in Singapore, which has no capital gains tax. It’s unclear how much this move will save him, since it depends on how Facebook’s stock performs. But let’s say the value of his stock doubles over the long run, from an estimated $3.8 billion now to around $8 billion. If that happens, he won’t pay any tax on the $4 billion increase in value—which, at a 15 percent capital gains rate, will save him $600 million in taxes.
Is this fair? No. It’s worse than that, though. It’s ungrateful and it’s indecent. Saverin’s decision to decamp the U.S. suggests he’s got no idea how much America has helped him out.
So, to enlighten him, let’s list all the ways Eduardo Saverin has benefitted from America. First and most obviously, he lived a life of relative safety in Miami, something that wasn’t guaranteed for him in Brazil. Second, also obvious: If Saverin hadn’t come to America, he wouldn’t have met Mark Zuckerberg, and—not to put too fine a point on it—if Saverin hadn’t met Zuckerberg, Saverin wouldn’t be Saverin.
Third: Harvard. Zuckerberg and his cofounders met in the dorms, and while Harvard is a nominally private institution, it enjoys significant funding and protections from the government. In 2011, Harvard received $686 million, about 18 percent of its operating revenue, from federal grants; that’s almost as much as it received from student tuition.
Would Facebook have been founded without Harvard? Perhaps—maybe Facebook would have come about wherever Zuck went to school. Still, there were social networks at lots of other schools. There was clearly something about Harvard’s student body that was receptive to Facebook.
More generally, elite, government-sponsored American universities like Harvard have been instrumental in the founding of many tech giants. Microsoft’s founders met at Harvard. Yahoo and Google’s founders met at Stanford. But even if you believe that these universities shouldn’t claim credit for the companies they brought about, it’s still hard to argue that Facebook would be where it is today without the American taxpayers’ large investment in public education. Facebook depends on really smart people to make its products. You don’t get smart people without tax dollars.
Fourth: The American government’s creation of the Internet. The strangest thing about Silicon Valley’s libertarian politics is how few people here recognize how the Internet came about. ARPANET, the earliest large-scale computer network that morphed into the Internet, was funded by the U.S. Defense Department, as was the research into fundamental technologies like packet switching and TCP/IP. Delve deeper into the network and you get to the microprocessors that run the world’s computers—another technology that wouldn’t have come about by loads of federal research grants.
What Eduardo Saverin owes America. (Hint: Nearly everything.) | PandoDaily
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And just what did the USA do for Eduardo that cost $600 Million?
And how much did the Saverin family investvin America as investor immigrants?
You didn’t ask enough questions here. Don’t quit your day job at the IRS.
Saverin used this country and has chosen to abandon it for the sake of more money. I’d rather pay taxes for a hundred illegal aliens in this country than contribute one cent in taxes for someone as disgustingly opportunistic as Saverin.
Saverin used this country to avoid being kidnapped and possibly killed. Just how much is that really worth? I’d say that he owes a fair tax for that. But now he’s moving to Singapore. Why? Not because his life is in danger, but rather his *BILLIONS* of dollars of future earnings might be subject to a progressive tax that pays for the very things he came to this country to take advantage of.
That’s pretty much the definition of a parasite: One that uses a host to its detriment. Saverin has sucked out of America’s veins the taxes he would have normally paid while taking advantage of everything that America had to offer.
If you don’t understand how that makes people upset, that’s fine. Your cutting, and rather revealing, remarks like “don’t quit your day job at the IRS” and asking about how much his parents invested in America aren’t any kind of real argument.
Your one sided diatribe against the rich tells me all I need to know.
There is nothing patriotic about paying taxes — it is simply the law. And the notion of “Fair Share” of taxes is a money-grabbing scheme by the government that couldn’t create a real job to save it’s own life. The law says: US Judge-Judge Learned Hand- ruled that no one is obligated to arrange his (her) affairs in order to pay more taxes.
Basically you are calling anyone who doesn’t want to pay more taxes “unpatriotic”. Nice try. Patriotism is the last refuge of scoundrels.
You miss the point. Had he earned the money on his own “we the people” would not necessarily have had dibs to it. Fact, we the people were the conduits he used period. It is a society and the excesses of those that benefit more so than others because of an aberration in our economic system must be mitigated through taxes.
If you’re not anywhere near Saverin’s income level, then you’re just a tool for those who would screw over their communities and their countries for the sake of profits. Sure, no one is obligated to pay more than their lawfully calculated taxes, but that’s not the point. This guy is employing a tax dodge, which is decidedly unpatriotic. America reached out and gave this guy and his family a safe home, nurtured him through its education system and did everything to put him where he is today.
Just so we’re clear on it, there is NOTHING that is “money-grabbing” about the idea of paying one’s fair share in taxes; it’s the way progressive taxation works, period. Sorry if that offends, but if you don’t like paying taxes, or feel that those who have benefited more from their society shouldn’t be obliged to pay back to the system that made their wealth possible, then I recommend that you move to Afghanistan or one of the Central Asian republics, so that you can see firsthand how people with a bombed-out or non-existent economic infrastructure live.
I’m sure you’re disappointed that one of those nasty rich America haters got away with $600 million dollars that could have provided free condoms for junior high students. I don’t support progressive taxes nor confiscatory tax rates. It looks like you just can’t figure out that you chased a very capable investor and employer into the arms of other countries with less onerous policies. What you call unpatriotic is actually called the conservation of capital, something that businesses need to stay in business.
As for your suggestion that I leave the USA if I dare to disagree with you — that’s the height of arrogance. However, I no longer live in the US nor do I intend to return. Let’s see how many other professionals you can manage to chase out of America.
Beside the fact that he’s leaving to avoid taxes, he’s leaving and taking his money with him. To spend elsewhere, to invest elsewhere. So much for job creation.
“There is nothing patriotic about paying taxes — it is simply the law.”
On the contrary, paying taxes is the height of patriotism.
Paying taxes is doing your part to keep this country running. A very small minority can make a more direct contribution — they can serve in Congress or in the military. Most of us can’t, but we can all pay our taxes.
Avoiding taxes is like the spoiled teenager who resents doing his chores. He may claim to be loyal to his family, but if he doesn’t pitch in and help, it’s just empty words.