To clarify, California tax agency will sometimes aggressively audit residents who claim to have moved elsewhere, when evidence indicates they have not actually abandoned their California domicile.
And I meant exactly what I said: there's only one third party in this conversation, California, and 2020 is "a few years ago".
You also omitted that this would be a wealth tax, not an income tax. Big difference. Income is determined on an annual basis and is usually sourced to where it is earned. Wealth is an accumulation over years, including unrealized or unrecognized (for tax purposes) income from various sources (e.g. different states).
Finally, this was a failed bill submitted by a few legislators, which would have required 2/3rds vote in both chambers. It never even made it out of the chamber of origin and so never came up for a full vote. So, "California" in fact did not "try" to impose this tax, since it was never even close to passing under California's rules, let alone being signed into law. And as several commentators elsewhere have observed, it would probably face significant challenges in court even if there was some alternate universe where it was CA law.
See also:
https://www.natlawreview.com/article/why-wsj-attacking-dead-...
The equivalent law in the UK would mean that if you just moved 60 miles from the UK to France you'd have to pay tax twice. Much more limiting.
Edit: two people have now told me that you get an IRS tax credit for foreign tax payments. I stand corrected - never knew that!
To my understanding, that's not how the US taxes work. You have to file a tax return with the US, but you get a credit for the taxes you've paid to other countries [0] so you actually end up paying whichever tax is higher.
[0] https://www.irs.gov/individuals/international-taxpayers/fore...
Part of the reason is there are very rich, politically active people who prefer the status quo. Such as the prime minister's wife, the owner of the Daily Mail, and suchlike.
>expatriates : An expatriate, or expat, is an individual living and/or working in a country other than their country of citizenship, often temporarily and for work reasons.
There are other countries as well, Americans just like to complain about it.
If you are not an American who lives abroad then, with respect, you don't know what you're talking about. May you never have the experience of a bank in your country of residence refusing to do business with you because they fear the reporting burden incurred by serving clients of your nationality. Perhaps the Canadian Revenue Agency wishes it could compel banks in foreign lands to report the financial activities of the citizens under its purview, but the IRS actually can, and does.