My Home About Me

"They were asking me to pay taxes on money I didn't have," Payre said. "I had no choice but to leave the country."

So says Dennis Payre, wealthy founder of Business Objects -- one of hundreds of wealthy Frenchmen driven from their homeland by France's "wealth tax." According to the Washington Post,

On average, at least one millionaire leaves France every day to take up residence in more wealth-friendly nations, according to a government study.

..."France is penalizing success in a big way," argued Payre, who is now 43 and has started a new company in Brussels that he said did nearly $32 million in business this year. "The loss in income for the government is the smallest part. The big issue is the loss of all that creative energy this country is dying for."

Payre said that when he decided to leave his high-tech company, Business Objects, in 1997, he owned shares that were worth $110 million -- on paper. French tax authorities required Payre to pay a wealth tax of 2.2 percent on the shares, based on what the shares would have been worth had he sold them at the market's highest point.

But Payre said that he didn't have access to them because of stock market regulations that limited his ability to sell and that, in any case, a market dip had devalued the shares below that peak.

The wealth tax -- officially called the solidarity tax -- is collected on top of income, capital gains, inheritance and social security taxes... Wealthy citizens' tax bills can be higher than their incomes, according to tax analysts. President Jacques Chirac's government attempted to rectify that disparity last year with changes intended to guarantee that no one would pay more than 60 percent of income in taxes. But many businesspeople say actual maximum tax rates still hover at around 72 percent.

Thanks to our DC lawyer/lobbyist friend for the link. He notes, "No doubt the capital which flees France brings more prosperity elsewhere."

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