Expats – the new taxpayers?

Following my rant, last week, on my dear country, I have to return to something I read a few times in the past few months concerning a new French idea, inspired by the Americans; namely to make expats pay taxes to the motherland on the income they earn abroad.

At least, based on what I have discovered, if you are an American living abroad, you only pay this tax if you are actually really making some good money; over $ 97000 per year. So if you are a waiter, a porter, a secretary, a sales assistant, etc, you should not have to worry about it.

French people who have been discussing this, TRUE French people that is, the ones who will never ever go abroad, certainly do not know about the $97000. They actually think that if you work and live abroad you are actually way richer than they are, therefore ALL expats should have to pay taxes to mother France.

Now I wonder if the politicians know any better?

I suppose to get some money to keep on paying for the overinflated bureaucracy, the government needs to constantly look for new ways to get some money. Taxes on the mainland are already well developed and it does not encourage votes if you keep on picking peoples’ pockets. Getting money from the expats/traitors would certainly appeal to the true French who could keep on living the good life while others pay for it. When I say good life, I do not mean the self-sufficient life of Tom and Barbara Good. No, I mean the life of living off the back of others…

Hey, as I said before the reason most of us left was to find a job which FRANCE could not give us. We saved this country a lot of cash in unemployment benefits and so on. So maybe instead of wanting to make us pay, you could just say thank you!

Yeah I know, I am not an expat for now, but I still see myself as one...