Billionaire Investor Moves Headquarters Out Of Blue State Over New Law
Fisher Investments announced it was relocating its headquarters from Washington state to Texas.
The announcement came after the Washington State Supreme Court ruled that a capital gains tax was constitutional.
Fisher is one of the largest employers in Clark County, Washington with around 1,800 employees working for them.
Fisher Investment is relocating its headquarters from Camas to Texas after the Washington State Supreme Court ruled Friday that a capital gains tax is constitutional.
In a one-sentence news release on Friday after the ruling, Fisher said, “In honor of the Washington State Supreme Court’s wisdom and knowledge of the law, and in recognition of whatever it may do next, Fisher Investments is immediately moving its headquarters from Washington State to Texas.”
…
Fisher is one of the largest employers in Clark County with around 1,800 employees. Despite moving the headquarters, Fisher told KGW it will not close its Camas office but some staff will transfer to its office in Plano, Texas. The company says it currently has 1,200 employees in Plano. Ken Fisher, the firm’s executive chairman who founded Fisher Investments in 1979, lives in Dallas.
In a 7-2 vote on Friday, the Washington State Supreme Court upheld a tax for the state’s top investment earners that passed in 2021. It collects a 7% tax on profits made from stocks, bonds and other high-end assets in excess of $250,000 for both individuals and couples.
He joined Stuart Varney to discuss why he left.
Fisher said that the move was not about tax but “about law.”
VIDEO (partial transcript below)
From the video above:
“Ken Fisher: If they can do this to the law, which is clearly a bizarre reading of the law, I mean this is a legal thing, not a political thing, If they can do this to the law they can do any other crazy thing and the fact is if you wanna call murder petty theft it doesn’t make it petty theft and no business outta wanna be subject to ruling on that kind of basis.”
Ken Fisher, the billionaire investor and chairman of Fisher Investments, made it clear on “Varney & Co.” Wednesday that the reasoning behind his latest business decision isn’t so much about politics or taxes, but rather law and order.
“We’ve got lots and lots and lots of states that have capital gains taxes on the left and on the right. California on the left at the highest, Arkansas, Alabama, Mississippi, on the left Illinois,” Fisher told host Stuart Varney. “You can go left, right, capital gains tax isn’t so much. This is about law. [Let me] be real clear. This is about law.”
…
But Fisher argued Washington’s new “excise tax” is hiding its true identity as a capital gains “income” tax.
“The fact of the matter is, it’s an income tax. If it walks like a duck, talks like a duck, acts, flies like a duck, it’s probably a duck,” Fisher said. “But if it’s got the DNA of a duck, it is a duck. And calling a duck a kangaroo doesn’t make it one. It makes the court one.”
Liberal policies at work.
No comments