Posted on 02/10/2015 11:27:11 AM PST by Theoria
A record 3,415 individuals renounced their U.S. citizenship or long-term residency in 2014, according to a list released by the Treasury Department on Tuesday.
The 2014 number was up 14% from 2,999 individuals in 2013, which was also a record.
“Many Americans abroad are finding that retaining their ties is not worth the cost and hassle of complying with the U.S. tax laws,” says Andrew Mitchel, a lawyer in Centerbrook, Conn., who tallies the lists of names released quarterly by the Treasury Department.
He links the growing number of renunciations by U.S. citizens and permanent residents to a five-year enforcement campaign against U.S. taxpayers who have undeclared offshore accounts.
The campaign began after Swiss banking giant UBS admitted in 2009 that it had systematically encouraged U.S. taxpayers to hide assets in secret Swiss accounts. Since then, more than 45,000 U.S. taxpayers have confessed to hiding money abroad and paid more than 6.5 billion in taxes, interest, and penalties.
But the campaign also complicated the financial lives of an estimated 7.6 million American citizens living abroad, leading growing numbers of them to give up their U.S. ties. By contrast, over the five years through 2008, fewer than 500 individuals a year on average renounced their citizenship or long-term residency.
Unlike many nations, the U.S. taxes nonresident citizens on income earned anywhere in the world, and U.S. tax liabilities can also apply to children born to Americans abroad. There are only partial offsets for double taxation for people who owe taxes both to the U.S. and a foreign country, and the reporting rules are onerous, experts say.
(Excerpt) Read more at wsj.com ...
Wait until we have a debt crisis and the US government starts capital controls and other measures, the numbers will really skyrocket
>The 2014 number was up 14% from 2,999 individuals in 2013, which was also a record.<
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What should also be told is that these 2,999 individuals represent a group of affluent Americans. None of them are paupers.
If they renounce their US citizenship they will have to apply for a different one or they will be stateless.
Will they receive SS benefits?
They didnt USED TO tax you on money earned overseas... but you knew democrats would not let that stand
To my knowledge, the US is the ONLY nation that taxes their citizens that live abroad (i.e., double taxation).
I’ve looked into this quite a bit, and you are correctamundo of course. You also have to pay and wait forever to get out of the US otherwise you can’t come back.
I’ve often considered Argentina. Laugh if you like, but aside from an evil intelligence agency run by former SS, it’s the Switzerland of South America.
Avg. net worth of those who left ?
In a Jan. 23 interview with the website Vox.com published Monday, Obama said he wants to use tax policy to boost the economic prospects . . . . “[A capital gains tax hike is] smart policy, and there’s no evidence that would hurt the incentives of folks at Google or Microsoft or Uber not to invent what they invent or not to provide services they provide,” the president said. “It just means that instead of $20 billion, maybe they’ve got 18, right?"
Maybe he should ask the people who are leaving in record numbers.
I have a wealthy friend, private jet money wealthy, and he tells me he has Medicare as a hedge against the failures of his businesses and no longer being able to pay for his medical care.
The rub is in order to receive his Medicare Card he is required to be on Social Security.
His question to me was “That’s crazy right? I don’t need the money and only have Medicare as a last resort”.
I laughed and told him fortunes change, as he acknowledged and acted upon.
But, in any case, he did pay into system. In any place and by sheer dollars measured.
The systems are for anyone who paid taxes, FICA, SS, etc.
He is entitled to get back at least some of his money and since he wouldn’t willingly throw away money or casually blow off any loss, he should happily take his money.
It’s not like he’s getting as good a return on his money, as he would if he invested it.
And fortunes change.
“What if you lost it all? You at least have Medicare and Social Security to fall back on...”
Like this dude will ever lose.
Pretty sure he has a few trusts that are loaded with more than enough cash and property....
That number is bad enough, but it doesn’t count the ones who don’t bother telling the governmen about it and going through the fascist exit interviews.
The tax of overseas income was started during the Civil War and has been on the books in different forms ever since.
More room for me.
Now if all the damned non-citizen assholes would pack up and go, this would be a great place to live.
Oh, and take that idiot obama with you.
If you renounce your citizenship, you still receive SS. But not Medicare.
Although if most of these folks are “wealthy”, those aren’t large considerations.
People outside of USA can’t use Medicare anyway.
Secondary: As for Part D, what I do for myself I do not recommend for anyone else, it just works for me...ok?
That's what I always ask those Texans who are so eager to secede. Do they plan to deport their 3.2m Medicare recipients back to the USA?
Most Latin Countries have very good medical care, cheap. However that may not always be true. Americans can buy an insurance plan before leaving the country. All countries do not have cheap medical care.
My supplemental Insurance gives $50,000 of care for out of the country expenses, when Medicare does not pay. That does not cover a move, only a vacation.
No, not quite. Freight trains and 747s are full and on approach as we speak...They're you and your kids replacements.
And you have no say in the matter.
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