Stupid, stupid, stupid. The Laffer curve is proven once again. This time by Italy.
Italy has a tax evasion problem. You have the ultra rich claiming no income and hanging out in luxury. Well, Italy is in some serious financial difficulties. The obvious knee-jerk solution is to go after those evil rich people! And, Italy did.
Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti has ordered a crackdown on yacht owners who claim low or no income, The Telegraph reports (h/t The Daily Mail). Monti’s government has also instituted [up to] a 700 euro per-day tax on large yachts in Italian harbors.
This is after they went after the rich in the upmarket ski-resorts in the Alps and the Dolomites. Prime Minister Monti has also initiated a crackdown on tax-dodging luxury car owners as well, Reuters reports.
So, what happened?
The unwelcome attention has led many yacht owners to flee Italy’s marinas for friendlier foreign ports, from Corsica and the Cote d’Azur in the west to Croatia, Slovenia, Montenegro and Greece in the east.
Others are heading southwards, to Malta and Tunisia – where they can access their boats on low-cost budget flights from Italy for a fraction of the tax bill they might otherwise face.
Around 30,000 yachts have fled Italy this year, costing €200 million in lost revenue from mooring fees, port services and fuel sales, according to Assomarinas, the Italian Association of Marinas.
The downturn in the industry, coupled with Europe’s recession, has cast a dark cloud over the 18,000 new yacht berths now under construction around Italy. Plans for a further 30,000 new berths have been put on hold.
“People don’t know what the implications are for big yachts so they’re choosing not to go to Italy or keep their boats there,” said Cecile Gauert, editor-in-chief of the US-based Yachts International Magazine. “Boat owners will simply sail to the next friendly harbour if there’s something they don’t like.”
There was also a 50 percent and 70 percent slump in Ferrari and Maserati sales, respectively, during the first quarter of the 2012 fiscal year.
Soaking the rich….. this causes the wealth to leave. Worse, we see a drop in revenue. Worse yet, we see a cost in jobs. The 30,000 new berths won’t be constructed. The cars? They won’t be produced. The jobs? They are as gone as the 30,000 yachts. Now, one has to ask
Can this be instructive to other nations?
suyts space 
Reblogged this on Climate Ponderings.
Think our leadership gets the message???
No. I don’t think they’ll ever come to understand what drives economies and what drives economies away.
Obama has already stated he does not care if higher taxes bring in more revenue – that it is purely punitive.
Exactly….. he wants to punish success.
Crack down on luxury cars… in the land of Ferrari and Lamborghini… Oi.
Well, the EU leadership constantly preaches the WWF’s message to us, that we’re burning through the planets resources, that we need to consume less… then they crack down on us with taxes to get the money we haven’t consumed to spend it themselves … on climate shindigs small and large, like right now, a ridiculous small junket called the Petersberger Klimadialog… which is currently happening and is a warmist-only “dialogue”.
In idyllic landscape,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hotel_Petersberg
(looks a little like the Obersalzberg)
warmists from 35 nations (or EU protectorates) meet to listen to Merkel preaching the Malthusian gospel . The Green party will complain that it wasn’t warmist enough. Merkel demands an urgent world-encompassing climate treaty. And the collective parasites – the parasite collective – will pretend to “prepare” the next BIG climate shindig in, wait for it, South Sudan – no wait, that was a translation mistake – in Qatar, yes, I hear Qatar it is, Conveniently, there are some luxury hotels just waiting for hungry (and thirsty) climate alarmists.
Nothing will happen, everyone will have played his role, a lot of my money will have been squandered, and our TV propagandists will dutifully fill the airwaves with warmist alarmism.
Pseudoreligious ritual acts.
That’s how the game is played. Qatar…. I like it.
Just found out, even though it’s called Petersberger Klimadialog, that’s only because it happened on the Petersberg near Bonn the last two times, this time it’s in Berlin in a conference room – sucks, eh. No idyllic landscape for the 35 enviro ministers this time.
I guess this means: You’ve just been downgraded.
Lol, indeed…. I’ll be demonstrating a German downgrade in just a few minutes!
I love seeing clueless Socialist hoist by their own petard.
Speaking of clueless, suyts, I forgot to tell you that Michael Tobis stopped by the other day after I called him an assclown.
He did nothing to change that assessment. Come over and check out his brilliance when you have a free minute and need a laugh.
http://sonofsoylentgreen.wordpress.com/2012/07/15/agw-assclown-qotd/
Lol, Johnny NQ put it so eloquently….. http://sonofsoylentgreen.wordpress.com/2012/07/15/agw-assclown-qotd/#comment-18570
I’ll drop by when I catch a moment and say hi to MT.
Note to self: Be more aware of immediate surroundings in relation to SG and appropriate workplace web views. …… oops.
Sorry about that. That’s why I gave you the link to the particular post instead of a general one. Still, I guess the sidebars can be…problematic.
Lol, yes, sidebar…. one on the left, right by MT’s original link. ….. LMAO!!!
I remember a few years ago the US Congress passed a tax on luxury boats. The end result was the loss of well paying craftsmen’s jobs that built the boats for all those evil rich people.
Nice article. It once again proves that socialist fool is redundant.
Yes, we did nearly the same thing. We imposed a higher luxury tax on yachts. Killed many jobs. Oddly, there’s a boat manufacturer in a town nearby in SE Kansas. It has never fully recovered from that bit of stupidity.
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