Posted on 03/11/2014 9:07:53 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
3,000 Americans around the world renounced their citizenship last year. Meet five U.S. citizens who have given up their passports -- or are thinking about it -- to escape an overly complicated tax code.
I threw up after renouncing
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Donna-Lane NelsonName: Donna-Lane Nelson, 71
Lives in: Geneva, Switzerland
I renounced my U.S. citizenship in 2011. After I did it, I was so emotional that I threw up outside the embassy.
During my renunciation, I broke down. It was like getting a divorce. America gave me my education, a good career path, and I came from a beautiful part of the country. This was very hard.
Before I took the last oath, I asked if I could change my mind. The embassy worker said maybe, with official permission. But I still went through with it.
My decision to renounce was triggered when my bank threatened to close my account because I was American. What would I do without a bank? Americans in Switzerland were having trouble with their investments, getting credit cards, and some weren't even getting loans.
I've been in Switzerland since 1990, and became a citizen in 2005, because I wanted the right to vote where I was living. The Swiss can tell I have an American accent, and I'm often explaining that I grew up in the U.S. and have a daughter who still lives in the Boston area.
(Excerpt) Read more at finance.yahoo.com ...
PING! Having mine deleted as a dupe.
Good riddance. If you don’t love your country enough to stay here then stay out.
“...3,000 Americans around the world renounced their citizenship last year. ...”
That’s 3,000 people I won’t ever call “My Countrymen”, and 3,000 runaways we can live without.
I’ll stay here, beside my brothers and sisters, and do whatever I can - whatever small part I have to play - to make it better.
Wherever they are - You can KEEP them. They’ll likely desert there if/when the going gets tough too.
Many banks and brokerages in places like Hong Kong, Zurich, Singapore, etc... will not take Americans as customers. The IRS and US Treasury are just too difficult to deal with, and Uncle Sam wants too much control and information on its citizens’ money.
One solution (easier said than done ) is to get another passport from another country while still retaining your US citizenship.
Many countries in the world recognize dual citizenships.
Once you have that passport, open a bank account in Switzerland with THAT passport.
This sounds very shallow. Is that all America meant to her?
“Good riddance. If you don’t love your country enough to stay here then stay out.”
All I met love their country. Unfortunately, it isn’t the country we knew. You are now a milk cow to be tapped, controlled and eventually just a beef cow.
RE: This sounds very shallow. Is that all America meant to her?
What about Frank Sinatra’s “That’s America to me”
What is America to me?
A name, a map, or a flag I see?
A certain word, “democracy”?
What is America to me?
The house I live in, a plot of earth, a street
The grocer and the butcher, and the people that I meet
The children in the playground, the faces that I see
All races and religions, that’s America to me
The place I work in, the worker by my side
The little town or city where my people lived and died
The “howdy” and the handshake, the air of feeling free
And the right to speak my mind out, that’s America to me
The things I see about me, the big things and the small
The little corner newsstand and the house a mile tall
The wedding in the churchyard, the laughter and the tears
The dream that’s been a-growin’ for a hundred and fifty years
The town I live in, the street, the house, the room
The pavement of the city, or a garden all in bloom
The church, the school, the clubhouse, the millions lights I see
But especially the people
That’s America to me
That’s fine but you would still be obligated under US law to disclose your foreign bank account.
“That’s 3,000 people I won’t ever call “My Countrymen”, and 3,000 runaways we can live without.”
It’s usually a little more complicated than that. I am an Israeli, born in Israel, grew up in Israel, served in the IDF, who happened to have two parents who also had USA citizenship, making me pretty much an accidental citizen of the USA.
Should I have paid taxes to the USA for my services in the IDF, prior to ever stepping foot here? I didn’t and won’t.
Now, I am currently working in the USA, teaching USA pilots how to use certain military hardware. I happily pay USA income taxes (and don’t pay Israeli taxes, which doesn’t require me to).
When I go home? Forget American taxes.
Interesting that revenue agencies in all these Socialist countries appear to be less burdensome and distressing than dealing with the IRS.
That's the way it ought to be. But, once you start doing that with US' policies, you've essentially closed the door behind you.
You're fortunate to have choices. Most of us don't.
RE: That’s fine but you would still be obligated under US law to disclose your foreign bank account.
And that, my friend is the BIG REASON why rich expats have been giving up their US passports.
We are one of only two countries in the world that go after a person’s income anywhere in the world.... Eritrea is the other one.
A German citizen working in America and earning his salary here is NOT REQUIRED to pay taxes on his American salary in Germany.
An American earning his salary in Germany is REQUIRED to pay taxes in America on his German salary.
Also, if you had a bank account as a citizen of another country PRIOR to becoming an American Citizen, the interest you make on that bank account is NOW taxable in the USA.
Look, I am not saying I support the decisions of these expats.... all I’m saying is this — we have allowed our government and the IRS to be so powerful that their reach is now BEYOND America’s borders. I leave it to the rest of the readers of this thread to determine whether or not that’s a good thing for our country.
The US was built on people fleeing tyranny and what at the time was regarded as prohibitive taxation.
Now the US has become tyrannical (and has prohibitive taxation) and people are fleeing it.
It would be a breath of fresh air if FReepers blamed the tyranny rather than the people escaping from it.
It is better to secede from tyranny than escape from it. But these are ex-pats living abroad. They can’t turn their current piece of soil into a free state. They can only escape.
I can’t blame them one bit, with the ridiculous, punitive tax system that has been imposed on Americans throughout the years. I some times think about getting out of Dodge myself, and if I ever did, I sure wouldn’t look back.
Boo-frickin-hoo. Love it or leave it, your choice.
I think the argument of FReepers is you don’t renounce your country simply because it has bad laws (in this case, our stupid and convoluted and yes, tyrannical tax laws) ... as a citizen, you FIGHT to make it a better country instead of giving up altogether.
Speaking of ex-pats, I always wondered about Terry Gilliam, the lone Yank from the Monty Python troupe.
He renounced and became a Brit eight or nine years ago.
But according to reports, his ability to re-enter the US has been restricted, far beyond what a typical British citizen would enjoy.
I wonder whatup with THAT??
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