Americans abroad renouncing US citizenship hits record - again

American Thinker ^ | 05/08/2015 | Rick Moran

[SeekAndFind]

More Americans renounced their US citizenship in the first quarter of 2015 than any previous quarter in history, according to the IRS.

A record 1,335 Americans living overseas renounced their citizenship in the first three months of 2015, according to the Internal Revenue Service.

[winner3000]

Death by taxes.

[Cringing Negativism Network]

Bye.

America is the greatest country on earth. We currently have a ton of very serious problems, but this is the greatest country ever. Anywhere.

[BenLurkin]

This creep......went to Berlin in 2008 -- and declared himself "a citizen of the world"!

[Sacajaweau]

I agree with you all the way.

The only other place I might want to live is in Canada....but that's a leftover from my youth and the great fishing trips into the wilds.

[DungeonMaster]

Interesting.

I like a country that is not interested in being part of one world community and that is not a melting pot of bad ideas and bad behaviors falsely called culture.

[Olog-hai]

So compliance with FATCA is the better option?

[pepsionice]

Here’s the thing. You have a decent idea for an ice cream and coffee shop operation in Mainz, Germany. You, the American, have your own cash and willing desire to put up a four of these ice cream shops that might draw $150,000 a year in profit revenue. Once you arrive and start to establish everything....then you want to open up a bank account and do regular German business, and the German banks (not all of them but the bulk of them will say this)....”No thanks”.

With the US banking rules in place....it is a royal pain for any German bank to deal with an American citizen...especially who makes profits and tidy incomes.

If you were Mexican, Cuban, or Honduran? No problem.

Yep, the US government finally created a law that limits your business capability, your risk-taking, and your capitalistic dreams.

[Olog-hai]

FATCA is causing most of the renunciations. What use is it to retain US citizenship if the USA becomes indistinguishable from other welfare-state countries, and in addition penalizes you for retaining your citizenship while overseas?

[Cringing Negativism Network]

I’m not sure what FATCA is, to tell the truth.

All I know is America is the greatest country on the face of the earth. We are everything good.

Unfortunately we have a lot of bad qualities, some of which both of our political parties are currently supporting. But the bottom line is America is truly great.

What we badly need however, is to bring back jobs to America.

That is my only really big issue. We are building up China.

China has four or five times America’s population, a communist government, and we don’t even truly own companies in China.

We need to bring back businesses right here.

What is FATCA?

[Blood of Tyrants]

Long, cold winters and socialism in Canada would prevent me from moving there.

[onedoug]

“Yes. Yes. I’ll renounce anything. Everything. I’ll renounce God.” —Captain From Castille

[Olog-hai]

SMH. I kinda expected all Freepers to know what the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act is.

[Cringing Negativism Network]

Maybe the ones who send former American businesses overseas.

I had never even heard of it.

[dfwgator]

The ultimate freedom is the freedom to leave.

[Old Sarge]

We have seen a lot of expats have goodbye as they find (what they THINK are) greener pastures - not realizing there is nowhere else to go...

[Olog-hai]

It’s Obama’s solution to (get this) raise revenue for the so-called Hiring Incentives to Restore Employment (HIRE) Act. Talk about something that would by its very nature do the exact opposite of what it is stated to do.

[tenger]

February 27, 2013
Santiago, Chile

"There is no bar to this nation's holding one of its own citizens as an enemy combatant." -- US Senator Carl Levin

My dictionary defines the word "sociopath" as "a person with a personality disorder manifesting itself in extreme antisocial attitudes and behavior and a lack of conscience.

I don't know about you, but it seems to me that someone who tries to award himself the power to lock people up indefinitely, without due process, is expressing extreme antisocial attitudes. And quite possibly a lack of conscience.

Psychologists might deem such an individual a sociopath. Yet in the Land of the Free, they're elected to the United States Congress.

This is the world of Carl Levin, a Senator from Michigan who championed the indefinite military detention clause in last year's National Defense Authorization Act.

In Levin's world, it's perfectly acceptable to hold US citizens on US soil without charges or trial, based merely on the suspicion of terrorist activity in the sole discretion of the government.

This, of course, is a rather convenient position for someone who has been in government for nearly the totality of his adult life. At age 78, he's been firmly ensconced in the US Senate since 1979 and was a politician at the local level prior.

Mr. Levin is now at it again.

In our ongoing conversations, you and I frequently discuss the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA)-- a small part of a 2010 law which I typically describe as the 'most arrogant piece of legislation ever passed.'

FATCA imposes additional reporting requirements for US citizens with foreign financial accounts, as well as heaps of obligations for foregin financial institutions.

FATCA casts an enormous net, affecting banks, brokers, and even gold depositories. And its requirements are so onerous that, as I reported last Friday, even Swiss logistics giant ViaMat has dropped US citizens from storing gold abroad.

The law itself was tiny... a mere 18 pages. But the IRS regulations which came out of it total more than 500 pages. It's unreal. Absurd, really.

Apparently, though, 500 pages of oppressive regulations aren't enough for Mr. Levin. And his new bill, S.268 "CUT Loopholes Act" aims to raise the bar even higher.

Section 102 of the bill, entitled "STRENGTHENING THE FOREIGN ACCOUNT TAX COMPLIANCE ACT", proposes a number of increased reporting requirements for both banks and individuals.

There is also a provision to expand the FATCA net even further by defining "non-FATCA institutions". Essentially, this would give the Treasury Department all the domestic legal authority they need to bully anyone in the world. (Again, anti-social behavior?)

The bill goes on for nearly 100 pages, covering everything from increased penalties (up to $10 million) to simplifying the process for the government to confiscate your assets.

Levin is really pulling out all the stops to make it as difficult as possible to do business overseas, and to hold assets in a safe, stable jurisdiction abroad. The end result will be fewer options to protect your savings, and more government control.

If passed, this bill will be one small step for Levin, one giant leap towards capital controls.

This post was written in 2013 by "Simon Black". He has an interesting blog called The Sovereign Man. He talks about FATCA pretty regularly since it affects a lot of people.

[SeekAndFind]

re: The ultimate freedom is the freedom to leave.

It’s not an easy thing to renounce US citizenship.

Suffice it to say that the one big hurdle to successfully giving up US citizenship is .... (DRUM ROLL ) — The IRS!

[dfwgator]

“Mr. Obama, tear down this wall.”