Why Are Americans Giving Up Citizenship? | CNBC International

[riverbendviewgal]

Published on Feb 17, 2015
A record 3,415 Americans renounced their citizenship in 2014. That was up from the 2,999 in 2013 and more than triple the number for 2012. Is a new law driving Americans to renounce?

The USA is the only country in the world besides Eritrea (a small African dictatorship) that uses Citizen Based Taxation on all its citizens (except US corporations)

In essence the US government has put a wall around the USA to KEEP people in the country.

The USA owns its citizens for life. , even if one does not want to be one.
Renounce? Tom Cruz renounced his Canadian citizenship for $100 Canadian dollars and a letter to the Canadian government For a US citizen to renounce. the cost is $2,350 plus 6 years of US income taxes filed, 5 years of all bank accounts they have, an exit tax on all ones assets plus possible penalties.

[jehop61]

1. Really

If renouncing your country is a matter of dollars and cents, by all means leave and pay dearly for that. I for one believe in in us and the value of continuing the fight to make us better. Don't let the door hit you.....

[Sen. Walter Sobchak]

2. That's simplistic

The people who get nailed by the ridiculous extremes of American extraterritoriality have few if any ties to the US in the first place and usually owe no taxes in the first place. US citizenship just becomes a nuisance to them as it complicates every aspect of their financial and working lives.

[riverbendviewgal]

3. you are correct and thank you for trying to enlighten those who can only respond with don't let the

Door hit you when you leave.

Now all banks around the world are being made to report to the IRS Americans who live in their countries who have accounts in their banks In yhose countries. These are dual citizens. In some countries banks have decided to close the bank accounts of Americans instead of having to report to the IRS. . Imagine being born in the USA while your non American parents went to school and returning to their country when you were a baby, never returninģ to the USA. Now you find out you must file US taxes for the rest of your life. No other country in the world does this.
There are no benefits to being an American when you do not live in America.

[Sen. Walter Sobchak]

5. With one exception, everyone I know in this situation has roughly the identical story

They were born in the US and left as children and never contemplated they might be US citizens until relatively recently. One guy was informed he was a US citizen by US Customs at the Vancouver airport only after passport requirement was introduced. He was born in Mississippi and that is his birthplace on his passport. The exception was born in South Africa to an American mother and grew up in Hong Kong and Singapore before her family settled in the UK, as as adult she moved to Canada. When she was born her birth was registered with the British consulate and not the American one. She visited the US for the first and only time when she was 17 for a trip to Disney World and New York.

Clearly this woman should be IRS hit squad target numero uno. She got nailed setting up her RRSP (Canadian 401K) when she was explicitly asked if she or her parents are American, she truthfully answered her mother was and with one check-box she was launched off into FATCA land. She is in a particularly annoying spot because although she is a US citizen by way of her mother, she has no documentation to actually support that. So she is on the FATCA radar, but she can't easily get a social security number so she can get right with the IRS.

Those are the victims of FATCA, those who just don't have the presence of mind (or any perceived reason) to lie.

[riverbendviewgal]

6. There is a lawsuit in Canada fighting FATCA

lawsuit was filed on August 11, 2014 in Canadian Federal Court. We ask the Federal Court of Canada to kill the FATCA agreement between Canada and the United States that aims to round up innocent Canadians, turn them over to a foreign government, and force them to transfer their retirement savings to the IRS.

http://www.adcs-adsc.ca/AboutADCS.html

[DonCoquixote]

7. no one answers this

If we were to renounce our system of citizenship and taxing, what would prevent Billionaires from having an even easier time of hiding taxes. You know Dubai will welcome them with open arms, as they jet back and forth, demanding all the services of America without payign squat. I could see something engineered for the middle class, but truly, I do not want to make it even easier for the rich to tax jump.

[riverbendviewgal]

8. the rich have money and power and will get away with tax evasion

You still do not understand the immorality of citizen based taxation. The rest of the world's nations have rich millionairs and billionairs yet the do not ot hsve citizen based taxation.

The USA has places like Delaware where the rich can hide their assets. Other states too.

Excellent article I will put up later about citizen based taxation and how the politicians dupe the American homelanders. Stay tuned. I need to get on my laptop to out it on.

[davidpdx]

10. It's been a long time since I've seen you

I don't get over into the Americans Abroad group much. You know I was looking at those requirements and right now I'm way beneath the cap for reporting. My wife and I haven't had much money the past few years since buying our house, plus I had been working sporadically from mid 2012 until the beginning of 2014 while earning my doctorate. Now I am starting to build up money again and I am thinking about just getting a safe to start storing money in until they sort this fucking mess out. I'm never going back to live in the US anyway, only to visit. If it takes squirreling money away that's what I'll do. In the end it all spends the same.

[riverbendviewgal]

11. You may not have to pay but you must report

see this on your US passport. Page 28 - D

It is in the back ...

https://www.google.ca/search?q=tax+reminder+on+US+Passport+back+page&espv=2&biw=1366&bih=659&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=_-9pVfeNC8npoATS_4PoDw&ved=0CDQQsAQ#imgrc=4OL7kIHXQm3ZyM%253A%3B_D6z2QNrkJfdGM%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Fthenewswheel.com%252Fwp-content%252Fuploads%252F2014%252F06%252FPP-back-pg-sm.png%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Fthenewswheel.com%252Falternative-gas-tax%252F%3B558%3B316

[davidpdx]

12. Oh no, I still file

I'm talking about an accumulation of money where it would trigger the reporting for assets over $50,000