Posted on 08/29/2014 1:42:28 PM PDT by Former Proud Canadian
Over the last two years, the U.S. has had a spike in expatriations. It isn’t exactly Ellis Island in reverse, but it’s more than a dribble. With global tax reporting and FATCA, the list of the individuals who renounced is up. For 2013, there was a 221% increase, with record numbers of Americans renouncing. The Treasury Department is required to publish a quarterly list, but these numbers are under-stated, some say considerably.
The presence or absence of tax motivation is no longer relevant, but that could change. After Facebook co-founder Eduardo Saverin departed for Singapore, Senators Chuck Schumer and Bob Casey introduced a bill to double the exit tax to 30% for anyone leaving the U.S. for tax reasons. That hasn’t happened, but taxes are still a big issue for many.
(Excerpt) Read more at forbes.com ...
On a lighter note, $2350 is still pretty cheap to get rid of the IRS forever. When it goes to $25,000, time to panic.
Berlin wall? You don’t have to renounce your citizenship to leave the country. Leave whenever you like. Not much of a wall.
I’ve been saying for years they will never build walls at the border unless they’re trying to keep us from escaping
A fee to leave...wow!
That doesn’t include the Expatriation tax.
Like every failing socialist regime, we don’t build fences to keep people out, we build barriers to keep them in.*
*Apologies to whoever first said this because I don’t recall where I first heard it.
I believe that it was Milton Friedman who observed that, when a nation enacts higher barriers to “capital flight,” it is well on its way to banana republic status.
The price to denounce one’s citizenship should be FREE. we have already paid for these bureaucrats. $2,350 is absurd. people will just leave and won’t bother renouncing.
Unlike East Germans, North Koreans, Poles, etc. we are very heavily armed.
Get rid of the income tax and IRS altogether and we won’t need to worry about people leaving.
But...it’s not going to happen because our corrupt leaders would have no control over our entire lives.
F U B O! & THE IRS
If you are not free to leave, you are not free.
Try getting all of your assets out.
Straight out of the Soviet Union.
In a Communist State, you are their property. Everything you have, they own, and you got it only because they gave it to you.
Thus the rationale for fees.
Straight on Communism.
With respect, I don’t think you are getting it.
That's exactly what it is.Unless the government can prove that cash (any amount) you want to take out of the country was illegally obtained (drugs,for example) there should be no impediments to so doing.This should go to SCOTUS.
Maybe things have changed, but I became a landed immigrant in Canada without the necessity to renounce my US citizenship and paid no exit fees. For a time the US tried to tax my Canadian income, but Congress made it such that I would only be liable for tax on income that would have been taxed in the US but was not in Canada. I had no such income.
If the federal government ever tries to prevent people from leaving the country freely, you can always pretend to be a Muslim and say you are traveling to Mecca for the hajj (only works for the part of the year just before the hajj) or to join the struggle to establish the caliphate...they wouldn't stop anyone like that.
your assets is part of your body
But not very heavily willed apparently.
We've been overthrown in a velvet Marxist coup with nary a shot fired - even after multiple announcements that we exist in a dictatorship supported by an oligarchy.
And many whom we would assume are those heavily armed 'we' - applaud a militarized police state 'for our protection'.
The mechanics of expatriation FWIW: You go to a U.S. embassy or consulate (you have to be abroad to expatriate yourself). You swear a renunciation oath, sign in triplicate and leave the embassy.
About three months later, after DC lawyers agree that you're not insane nor pulling a stunt, you get a Certificate of Loss of Nationality (CLN) back dated to the day you swore the oath.
Now you're no longer an American. You may be something else - you may even be "stateless". If you want to visit the folks in Kansas, you'll need a visa (or just walk across from Mexico).
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