Monthly Archives: October 2012

Will big businesses continue moving to the UK from the USA?

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In January, when Aon Corp. made the major announcement that their corporate headquarters would be moving to the UK from the USA, their statement said: “The move provides greater access to emerging markets and takes better advantage of the strategic proximity to Lloyd’s and the London market as one of the key international hubs of insurance and risk brokerage.” However, as 2012 has passed by there are people speculating that, in truth, the move was to avoid paying the almost 40% corporate tax rate (the highest in the world) that the USA requires.

Such speculation has intensified as two other corporate powerhouses have declared their intentions to relocate from the USA as well: electrical equipment maker Eaton Corporation is planning on finishing off a merger that would land it in Ireland instead of Ohio and Pentair, the water technology company, recently made the move from Minneapolis to Switzerland.

While there are other reasons being listed for the moves of these companies, tax laws seem to be the common thread in all three cases and experts have pretty much universally agreed that this was the overriding motivation for relocation in each occurrence.

The question now becomes whether this trend, disturbing as it might be to the US financial community, will persist. There continues to be calls to reform the tax codes of America and, without doing so, many professionals believe that this trend will indeed keep up and that major corporations will pursue the possibility of fleeing America for the potential to save up to several million dollars in taxes by relocating to places such as the UK. As the United States Presidential election draws upon us and the economy continues to be one of the biggest concerns (if not the biggest) among voters, the pressure will only be turned up on decision makers to lower these corporate tax requirements by at least 15% and to make the final amounts more competitive with the rest of the world.

It would appear that, as the pundits have suspected, whichever Presidential candidate chooses to embrace the potential of tax reform stands to get a very big leg up on the coming race.

Rainier Overseas Movers has helped countless people move to the UK from the USA. Contact us for a free quote today.

Voters threaten to move to Italy from the USA if Romney wins

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As the American Presidential election draws ever closer and the polls continue to show a neck and neck race that could go down to the wire, it appears that certain fans of President Obama are growing more and more concerned about the chances of him not being reelected and have begun to take to Twitter to announce possible actions that they will take should this occur. One of the more popular threats thrown around has been these voters intentions to move to Italy from the USA if Mitt Romney is elected (“I’m moving to Italy if Romney win; Italian men love black girls,” wrote illest ice@iamDynastyCold) and, while this has been one of the more commonly proposed landing spots it was not the only one. Others included New Zealand, Mexico, Australia and even Cuba (e.g. “If romney wins & is as horrible a he appears now… Deport me back to cuba… Ill call them myself.”).

However, a mass exodus from the US is not the only threat being bandied about. Others contained rioting and even violence. Some of the more disturbing of these messages included the following: “I Heard Mitt Romney , Tryna Take Away Food Stamps , If He Do .’IMA START A RIOT , IMA START A RIOT’” from Tommy Pickles@ThugPickles and “I want to shoot Romney in the penis. Why do we let him talk? If he wins I’m moving to New Zealand.” from Rafiki the Ukulele@lovingschneider.

While the vast majority of people have written off these countless posts that have hit the Twitter sphere as harmless threats from some frustrated voters the truth is that these are dangerous precedents being set that should have the rest of us fair minded American citizens very concerned, regardless of political leanings.

One of Americas finest characteristics is the right it gives its citizens to vote for the leader of our country in a fair and democratic way. The mindless threats being callously thrown about by these hooligans does nothing but undermine all the rights of freedom that America was founded upon and stands for. While these folks think they are doing what is right for the country, in reality they are smearing the country’s reputation and putting the notion in the minds of people around the globe that US citizens get what they want or they throw a tantrum.

This is not what America is about. This is one of the greatest countries in the world and if these people truly do intend to take matters into their own hands should things not go their way then I suggest they do indeed move to Italy, Scotland, Canada or any of the other places mentioned regardless of how the election turns out. These people do not represent the real America anyway.

If you’re moving to Italy from USA contact Rainier Overseas Movers today for a free quote and any other information you may be seeking.

New laws could force WWII vets to move back to Germany from the USA

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As world travel gets easier and the barriers of relocating from one country to another continue to decrease, America and Germany continue to be two of the countries most frequently involved in citizen swaps. In fact, the amount of people moving to Germany from the USA and, in return, from Germany to the United States has surged at a rapid pace. It now appears, however, that there will be many new forced immigrations as well.

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That was the word out of Germany as news spread that the standard for trying potential criminals of war-crimes has been lowered and that the country would therefore step up efforts to force suspects to leave their homes in America to come and stand trial in Germany.

The change resulted from the successful prosecution of John Demjanjuk over one year ago that charged him as an accessory to murder in almost 30,000 cases stemming from the Second World War. Demjanjuk lived in the USA but was charged in court in Munich. He was a guard at one of the infamous death camps of Poland and, as many have over the years, escaped prosecution on the basis of his claims that he never actually committed the murders but was just “working” at the camp.

This has been a common story over the decades. However, as authorities have learned more about the war and the way that these common “workers” also very likely had a helping hand in the brutal murder of millions of people they have been able to prosecute defendants without having to tie them to specific crimes.

Another high profile case, being investigated against Johann “Hans” Breyer of Northeast Philadelphia, has also gained global attention. Breyer has long claimed that his job in the camps did not involve any illegal activity and, in fact, a federal court ruled several years ago that he could remain in the U.S. However, the case of Demjanjuk has reopened the case and Breyer, 87 years old, is again being pursued.

While the constant moving back and forth of Germans and Americans has been an extremely positive development over the decades since the end of the war, it is good to see the German authorities not resting on these laurels and willing to push the issue while knowing that this could strain the relations of the two countries. It has been proven again and again that even workers with supposedly legal jobs at the camps often rotated duties with some of the other overtly violent workers and that very rarely was there someone on the premises of the death camps without blood on their hands.

Let’s hope that the German Nazi hunters continue their thorough pursuit of these alleged perpetrators and that friendly relations and back and forth transfers will not cease between Germany and the USA as a result.

Rainier Overseas Movers will give you a free quote for your move to Germany from the USA. Contact us for more information.

Will French president's new tax laws discourage people from moving to France from the USA?

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As French President François Hollande continues to push forward with his new tax plan to, essentially, raise taxes for high income earners, there has been a fervent opposition coming from the start up community who are saying that the new bill will further discourage entrepreneurs from moving to France from the USA and will ultimately prevent young innovators from even ever considering France as a long term destination.

The start up group, locally referred to as “pigeons,” has long felt the restrictions imposed by France and bemoaned the difficulties of starting a business there in comparison to the US. Capital gains taxes are substantially greater in “pays des droits de l’homme” (which means country of the human rights, a nickname for France) and tax laws there are historically slanted to favor the larger companies.

A direct quote regarding the complaint aptly describes the position of future potential start up entrepreneurs: “They are protesting against aspects of Hollande’s tough crisis budget for 2013 which, they say, are unfairly skewed against the small business sector and would kill the start up boom, forcing young digital innovators to flee France. They argue that a €2bn (£1.6bn) increase in capital gains taxes on equity sales would force entrepreneurs who sell their new companies to pay up to 58% to the state, discouraging them from getting new ideas off the ground in the first place.”

It appears that this issue will go straight to the heart of the long held debate of the pros and cons of one of the basic financial tenets of the USA vs. France. Since the beginning of the hi-tech era there has been speculation and, some would say, out and out resentment from the global financial community about the US’s seeming overwhelmingly dominant position as the preferred start up destination of the world as opposed to some of the other financial heavyweights around the globe, such as France.

Hopefully Hollande’s new tax laws will strike an extremely sensitive chord amongst the financial leaders of France and will force them to take the needs and desires of future start ups into account. You can only take away so many local incentives to start a business somewhere before the field of prospective innovators begins to dwindle and they decide to pursue their dreams elsewhere.

Rainier Overseas Movers is a global leader in helping people move to France from the USA. Contact us any time for a free quote and any other questions regarding your move.