Federal Budget 2016: $29B Deficit

[AltaGuy]

Originally Posted by IliketoPuck

Tax evasion =/= tax optimization planning.

Paying a higher tax rate if you don't have to isn't very smart.

Removing yourself from your country of residence, of which you are a citizen, and where you have spent your entire life for the purposes of paying "slightly" less tax is barely tax planning (or "optimization") at all in my opinion. Hence why I used that term first.

[polak]

Guy makes billions off of our resources and he's getting props for sticking it to the government and moving and saving ~1% of his yearly income.

Yup that's about as Alberta politics as it gets.

[Locke]

Originally Posted by AltaGuy

Removing yourself from your country of residence, of which you are a citizen, and where you have spent your entire life for the purposes of paying "slightly" less tax is barely tax planning (or "optimization") at all in my opinion. Hence why I used that term first.

Actually, knowing admittedly very little about Mr. Edwards personally, I'd suggest that this is more a form of protest.

It might have a little bit of spite connected to it, but that is sheer baseless conjecture.

[Slava]

Originally Posted by OMG!WTF!

Trading living in the country/ foothills south of Calgary for London would not be worth whatever you save in taxes. He'll be back.

I visited London last year and would move there in a heartbeat. Its amazing!

[Locke]

Originally Posted by MattyC

How much time does Edwards have to spend in England in order for his residency to be applied there?

I cant speak to the English tax system but in Canada Provincial residency is determined as at Dec. 31.

I'm not going to go much more into it because Federal residency regulations are very complicated.

[OMG!WTF!]

Originally Posted by Slava

I visited London last year and would move there in a heartbeat. Its amazing!

Love it or leave it bro.

[Enoch Root]

Originally Posted by Locke

Actually, knowing admittedly very little about Mr. Edwards personally, I'd suggest that this is more a form of protest.

It might have a little bit of spite connected to it, but that is sheer baseless conjecture.

My thoughts as well.

I fully get people leaving for tax reasons (the primary reason we came here was the tax environment), and I expect a lot of people to leave for the same reason.

But in this case, I think there may also be a political statement attached.

[Locke]

Originally Posted by Slava

I visited London last year and would move there in a heartbeat. Its amazing!

A few years back I spent a week in London. Way too crowded for me, but what a place to visit.

But again, one of the single most expensive municipalities on the face of the earth.

[Looch City]

Originally Posted by polak

Guy makes billions of our resources and he's getting props for sticking it to the government and moving and saving ~1% of his yearly income.

Yup that's about as Alberta politics as it gets.

No kidding. I suspect this more of an "stick it to the NDP/Liberals" rather than the negligible savings.

[Slava]

Originally Posted by OMG!WTF!

Love it or leave it bro.

I love it here to, but if something came up or I was a billionaire I would move around and probably love a lot of places for a lot of reasons.

[edslunch]

Originally Posted by Locke

A few years back I spent a week in London. Way too crowded for me, but what a place to visit.



But again, one of the single most expensive municipalities on the face of the earth.

I'm guessing he can afford it.

Guy is a bazillionaire and maybe just wants to live in one of the world's top cities for a while. Why firs there need to be a motive or a message?

[IliketoPuck]

Originally Posted by AltaGuy

Removing yourself from your country of residence, of which you are a citizen, and where you have spent your entire life for the purposes of paying "slightly" less tax is barely tax planning (or "optimization") at all in my opinion. Hence why I used that term first.

Edwards is not breaking any laws by choosing to do this. You may not agree with his choice, which is fine, but he has every right to do what he is. It is not tax evasion.

Like others have suggested, this is more of an indictment on recent provincial and federal policy decisions than anything.

Quite frankly, pointing your finger at Edwards and saying "how dare he" is misdirected anger. You are complaining about the symptom instead of identifying the cause. If you want to be upset, direct that anger at the root cause: higher taxes, and the governments who chose to implement them without a thorough understanding of the impact of their actions.

I particularly appreciated the poster who compared the government's choice to gambling. They tried to bluff Murray into paying more to play at their casino. He looked at them, called their bluff and took his chips to a different casino.

[Leeman4Gilmour]

Ironically, a lot of big time English celebrities (Connery, Jagger, Bowie, Starr, Caine) left England for various places to avoid their top end taxes. That was during the 70's and the Brits fixed their tax structure to stop it from happening. I guess our government reps aren't historians...or proficient with Google.

Upon further thought, I wonder if the irony in Edwards choice of residency was intentional. That would support Locke's hypothesis.

[Coach]

Originally Posted by IliketoPuck

Edwards is not breaking any laws by choosing to do this. You may not agree with his choice, which is fine, but he has every right to do what he is. It is not tax evasion.

Like others have suggested, this is more of an indictment on recent provincial and federal policy decisions than anything.

Quite frankly, pointing your finger at Edwards and saying "how dare he" is misdirected anger. You are complaining about the symptom instead of identifying the cause. If you want to be upset, direct that anger at the root cause: higher taxes, and the governments who chose to implement them without a thorough understanding of the impact of their actions.

I particularly appreciated the poster who compared the government's choice to gambling. They tried to bluff Murray into paying to play more at their casino. He looked at them, called their bluff and took his chips to a different casino.

As you noted in your first paragraph, people are allowed to think of this how they want.

We all understand that it's the higher tax rates that are driving people like Edwards out. That doesn't mean that we have to blame the government over his selfishness. We are able to fully understand the situation and direct our anger any way we please.

Some might call the government naive and stupid, some may call Edwards a selfish asshat. Some may actually fall into both categories.

No one is claiming that he's breaking any laws (even if we want to hyperbolize it as tax evasion). That doesn't mean we can't think it's a sh**y thing to do.

[chemgear]

Originally Posted by Leeman4Gilmour

I guess our government reps aren't historians...or proficient with Google.

Why limit it just to "Google?"

[IliketoPuck]

Originally Posted by MattyC

We all understand that it's the higher tax rates that are driving people like Edwards out.

That doesn't mean that we have to blame the government over his selfishness.

I'm confused by how the first sentence and second sentence are not connected. Governments control the rates of taxation in their jurisdictions, right?

If you want to argue the point that Edwards was already planning to move to London prior to tax increases, I'm all ears. I haven't heard that though, so I can only assume until I do that he moved to London as a result to taxation changes in his previous jurisdiction.

[Coach]

Originally Posted by IliketoPuck

I'm confused by how the first sentence and second sentence are not connected. Governments control the rates of taxation in their jurisdictions, right?

If you want to argue the point that Edwards was already planning to move to London prior to tax increases, I'm all ears. I haven't heard that though, so I can only assume until I do that he moved to London as a result to taxation changes in his previous jurisdiction.

Not everyone bases their decisions purely on money. And a socialist system very much relies on that.

From a logical stand point, yes, the government raises taxes, people (who can) will move to where they don;t have to pay as much. A person can understand this logic while not finding it ethical.

[polak]

The issue I have with it is that he made his fortune from Alberta resources. He didn't invent anything, or start some revolutionary new type of business. No, he took our oil out of the ground and sold it for tremendous profit. Sure his company employs thousands of people but all those jobs exist so that he can profit as much as possible from our resources.

Now that the government decided that the province no longer wants to basically be a tax haven, he's abandoning it to save his 1%. A 1% that means #### all to him or his quality of life.

Kinda ####ty. That's all.

[Enoch Root]

Originally Posted by MattyC

Not everyone bases their decisions purely on money. And a socialist system very much relies on that.

From a logical stand point, yes, the government raises taxes, people (who can) will move to where they don;t have to pay as much. A person can understand this logic while not finding it ethical.

A system that ignores human nature is a very poorly designed system.

[AltaGuy]

Originally Posted by IliketoPuck

Edwards is not breaking any laws by choosing to do this. You may not agree with his choice, which is fine, but he has every right to do what he is. It is not tax evasion.

Like others have suggested, this is more of an indictment on recent provincial and federal policy decisions than anything.

Quite frankly, pointing your finger at Edwards and saying "how dare he" is misdirected anger. You are complaining about the symptom instead of identifying the cause. If you want to be upset, direct that anger at the root cause: higher taxes, and the governments who chose to implement them without a thorough understanding of the impact of their actions.

I particularly appreciated the poster who compared the government's choice to gambling. They tried to bluff Murray into paying more to play at their casino. He looked at them, called their bluff and took his chips to a different casino.

lol... I don't think I'm going to use Murray Edwards' place of residence as a reason to promote the virtues of small government.