Will Smith baffled by proposed French tax increase: ‘God bless America'

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During an interview this week with a French TV station, actor Will Smith said he supported the idea of paying higher taxes -- but he was shocked when the reporter told him about a proposal from France's new president to raise the marginal tax rate to 75 percent.

"I have no issue with paying taxes and whatever needs to be done for my country to grow. I believe very firmly that my ability to sit here — I'm a black man who didn't go to college, yet I get to travel around the world and sell my movies, and I believe very firmly that America is the only place on Earth that I could exist," Smith said. "So I will pay anything that I need to pay to keep my country growing."

That's when the interviewer mentioned that France could have a 75 percent tax rate on income over one million Euros.

"Seventy-five?" Smith gasped. "Yeah, that's different, that's different. Yeah, 75. Well, you know, God bless America."

Smith was in Europe to promote his new movie, "Men in Black III."