Like rats - France
The exodus is proceeding as predicted -- from
France24/AFP:
Rich businessmen pulling out of France as tax-hit looms
A flood of top-end properties are hitting the market as businessmen seek to leave France before stiff tax hikes hit, real estate agents and financial advisors say.
"It's nearly a general panic. Some 400 to 500 residences worth more than one million euros ($1.3 million) have come onto the Paris market," said managers at Daniel Feau, a real-estate broker that specialises in high-end property.
A bit more:
While the Socialists' plan to raise the tax rate to 75 percent on income above 1.0 million euros per year has generated the most headlines, a sharp increase in taxes on capital gains from the sales of stock and company stakes is pushing most people to leave, according Didier Bugeon, head of the wealth manager Equance.
French entrepreneurs have complained vociferously against a proposal in the Socialist's 2013 budget to increase the capital gains tax on sales of company stakes, which they argue will kill the market for innovative start-up companies in France.
Entrepreneurs in the high-tech sector in particular often invest their own money and take low salaries in the hope they can later sell the company for a large sum.
They say a stiff increase in capital gains tax would remove incentives to do this in France. They also argue that capital has already been taxed several times in the making.
More:
The real estate agents don't expect a collapse, however, as the offers to sell still remain low and interest by foreign buyers firm.
Of course; people are retaining their homes as secondary residences and establishing primary residences in Nations that are more business friendly. Foreign buyers are looking to cherry-pick primo French properties while not actually moving there full time. Regimes change.
Unintended consequences of stupid governmental policy decisions...
Posted by DaveH at October 7, 2012 10:57 PM