What follows is yet another article motivated by the Atossa Reuters article. Pretty soon that “Peter Dunn” guy (and maybe the other Peter Dunn too) is going to a household name! Here is the last paragraph.
How sad is that? The cons outweighed the pros, of being an American no less.
As a head of any organization, what would you think if you had customers that would pay real money to leave you because you were such a pain in the buttocks to deal with? Hopefully it would give you pause. Perhaps it should.
How about this for a consideration – why don’t some of our new ex-citizens put together a youtube video that goes along something like this…..
“Hi my name is John Smith and I’m longer a US citizen
Hi my name is Jane Joyce and I’m no longer a US citizen
Then maybe some bit how nearly 2000 middle class intelligent people decided that the US citizenship-based taxation system is driving people away etc and the blue book is no longer worth the trouble.
Then something about websites, and the system needs to change”
I don’t know just thinking out load.
As long as the people involved don’t mind but I think some homelanders would be shocked that such a video would ever be possible and we’re all a bunch of traitors.
A much more honest retelling of the Reuter’s article than has been done by some of the news outlets that have mischaracterized and retold the story as one of tax evasion.
If my customers paid me to go away I’d be suicidal because it would mean the end of my business was near. I take pride in making things easier than any of my competitors.
When you look at the United States corporate tax policies and compare them to every other country, it’s easy to see why they have been losing ground for decades. They need to have a come to Jesus moment and fix all that is broken about their system. In fact, their system is so broken they should just take that 72,000 page tax code and burn it and start from scratch.
Great headline for a great article.
@John: I’m in for a You Tube video. Can I sing my revised version of the old American Woman song by the Guess Who? It’s now American Taxman Stay Away From Me.
@recalcitrantexpat – Do you have any links for the news outlets?
2omghesstillanamerican- it won’t happen as long as the belief in American Exceptionalism is accepted.
@OMG, yes! burn the tax code, not religious texts! That would do more to create harmony in America.
@John & Blaze
I love the idea of a ‘You Tube’ Video and most definitely Blaze’s song should be front and centre.
Read Robert Reich “Beyond Outrage”. I am hoping that the USA will spend a lot of money to go after Americans Living and Working Abroad to come back with empty hands…Of course they may know this but are counting on us not knowing about FBARS and having to pay hefty penalties. The IRS Tax Advisor herself, a decent person, has protested against this.
Can’t wait to see the next Quarterly Publication of Individuals, Who Have Chosen to Expatriate (6039G)
http://tiny.cc/renouncers
@Rick, you may want to check out this previous post:
http://isaacbrocksociety.com/2012/04/06/2012s-q1-has-come-to-a-close-what-are-those-expatriation-numbers/
I sent a link to it to David Jolly with the NYTimes, suggesting he look into some concerns that these numbers are being underreported by the government. He told me he passed my request on to his colleague Brian Knowlton who is working on a story along similar lines.
@bubblebustin: if you’re still in contact with him, let him know there have been a couple of blog posts here & elsewhere looking into two angles of that story.
First, the reported renunciant numbers aren’t even big enough to cover the number of Americans who naturalise in European countries which disallow dual-citizenship. I did a post on this a while ago. Ovid (an occasional poster here) did his own analysis on his own blog, and managed to get it cross-posted to Daily Kos.
Second, I’ve come across lots of famous people who have claimed to the media that they renounced, but don’t show up in the Federal Register. The Federal Register almost always includes foreign politicians and people who are famous in the US, but these people I’ve found who aren’t listed are invariably non-politicians, who either weren’t particularly famous when they renounced but became famous afterwards (e.g. Adam Bilzerian), or are only famous in non-Anglophone countries (one big example is Korean actress Han Ye-seul; I’ve been working on a blog post with a whole list of people like her). That strongly suggests there’s some “manual filtering” of the Federal Register list: the boys at State or the IRS include the most famous names they’ve heard of, pick a few other random ones, and hope that the few renunciants who are looking for their own name but don’t find it just chalk it up to some bureaucratic snafu and move on with their lives.
Reblogged this on Renounce U.S. Citizenship – Be Free.
@Eric, wow getting busy around here…As I mentioned, I sent my original email to David Jolly who passed it on to Brian Knowlton. I haven’t heard anything in response from Mr Knowlton, but I did pass your information on to him today (and also mentioned the tweet from TAS, and how the noted article has gone viral).