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 ...
You identify yourself first and foremost as an Israeli.
These are people that were BORN American, for the most part, and deserted. You weren’t born here, they were.
It’s a completely different situation.
I could care less about the taxes part. I care more about people who stay and are willing to do whatever it takes to right the wrongs HERE, than I do about someone who was “ready to throw up” over renouncing something that other people DIED to obtain.
We’re better off without them.
Glad you’re here. Rather wish you’d self-identified as an American first, but either way, glad you’re here. I have a dear friend who is ex-Israeli Airborne, born there, fought there, but is now a US citizen. One of the toughest dudes I ever met.
And there are MANY great places to escape to.
I did!
Easy to say, but as Obama continues to remake the country and the feckless GOPe has become his enabler, when is the US no longer the country you grew up in and love and your country treats you as a subjugated enemy to be exploited and then disposed of? The US has also become increasingly hostile to US expats and are creating a paper Berlin Wall making life more and more difficult to live outside the country. Perhaps that is the purpose to kip the citizenry from fleeing a tyrannical regime. Check out the movie trailer www.graystatemovie.com for a possible future.
Which is still illegal.
RE: Interesting that revenue agencies in all these Socialist countries appear to be less burdensome and distressing than dealing with the IRS
Yep. The IRS is now reaching out to your pockets OUTSIDE the USA.
And this administration is giving it more powers even as we speak.
For instance — the power to determine whether or not Tea Party Patriots can exercise their political rights to organize without being punished, or even — whether or not you have bought healthcare.
More powers coming...
This country is slowly becoming what the Pilgrims fled from.
“...You’re fortunate to have choices. Most of us don’t....”
EVERYONE has choices. You choose to obey, or you choose not to. You choose to fight, or you choose to comply.
You choose to run away, or you choose to stay.
Either way has consequences, but it is still a choice.
Most of us choose to stay in the land of our birth - that other people DIED to protect - and do whatever small part we can play.
The upside of staying is that you one day may get to select Lois Lerner’s lamppost.
RE: Which is still illegal.
Well, in this case, there are many (perhaps hundreds of thousands or millions ) of people who are already doing this.
I hasten to remind you that many countries in this world recognize DUAL citizenships. America is just one of them.
You don’t have to give up your old passport after being an American. Whats to stop you from opening an account using your other passport you haven’t given up?
And oh yeah, if you had a bank account in your home country PRIOR to becoming a US citizen, what’s to stop you from keeping it?
RE: Which is still illegal.
Granted it is. The next question is this — Why not DECRIMINALIZE it? We’ve done that for Marijuana already.
It’s still illegal.
Roger that, Buckeye.
cannot blame them
Well said.
Good riddance. If you don’t love your country enough to stay here then stay out.
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Sometimes your country leaves you.
REMARKS BY THE PRESIDENT ON INTERNATIONAL TAX POLICY REFORM
Now, for years, we've talked about stopping Americans from illegally hiding their money overseas, and getting tough with the financial institutions that let them get away with it. The Treasury Department and the IRS, under Secretary Geithner's leadership and Commissioner Shulman's, are already taking far-reaching steps to catch overseas tax cheats -- but they need more support.
Obama cracked down on American expats and overseas companies, knowing full well that he would need every penny he could squeeze out of them to help pay for Obamacare.
THAT, is tyranny, pure and simple.
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.
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Doesn’t quite work that way. Your US citizenship requires you to jump through hoops.
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.
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some freepers. Good luck with changing these laws.
Well then...if this spineless, gutless puke doesn't have the fortitude to defend his nation's honor, by all means, he should renounce his so-called "citizenship".
I agree with my fellow dawg soldiers that if these lowlife cowards think so little of the blessing of American citizenship which was bestowed upon them, who needs 'em? One particular lying, cowardly FReeper punk comes to mind...I don't know if he's renounced his citizenship, but I wish he would. Then I wish he'd just disappear altogether, but he gets his jollies bashing his former nation, so that ain't gonna happen.
God Bless America!
Woof, woof! Dawg soldiers up!
Scouts Out! Cavalry Ho!
“...”’We’re ostracized for being American’”...”
Americans don’t run away.
Woof!
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