Fair trade?
French movie star Gérard Depardieu is threatening to flee France — for either Russia or Belgium — while soccer star David Beckham is coming to France to join the Paris Saint Germain soccer team.
Though the moves are unrelated, as far as we know, France is losing one millionaire and gaining another.
Mr. Depardieu, in an unusually public fight, broke with France’s Socialist government over its 75 percent tax rate for those earning more than €1 million a year, or about $1.3 million. After announcing he planned to renounce his French citizenship and move to Belgium, he ended up traveling to the Black Sea resort of Sochi early in January to claim his Russian citizenship, offered by none other than Vladimir Putin.
Lovers of soccer and those who have been highly critical of Mr. Depardieu for abandoning his native France over taxes may celebrate the arrival of the English soccer star David Beckham. But even some soccer fans are less than enthused.
As the IHT’s soccer reporter, Rob Hughes, writes of Mr. Beckham: “Whatever physical speed he had, which was never outstanding, has diminished. He is unlikely, even in the comparatively less frenetic French league, to return as the winger he once was with Manchester United and Real Madrid.”
Moreover, Mr. Beckham’s contract with Paris St. Germain is only for five months. Rob reports that the Beckhams (David and wife, Victoria “Posh Spice”) and their four children are “committed to resettling in London.”
(The top income tax rate there is 50 percent.)
Which country do you think is getting the better end of these trades? And why?
IHT Rendezvous: Depardieu vs. Beckham: Is France Gaining or Losing?
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IHT Rendezvous: Depardieu vs. Beckham: Is France Gaining or Losing?
