UPDATE: Michael J. Miller made a further comment based on a conversation with an IRS employee knowledgeable about expatriation (emphasis mine):
As a follow-up to my prior posts, I spoke today with someone at the IRS who is knowledgeable in the “expatriation” area to discuss the issue of someone who renounced prior to enactment of the American Jobs Creation Act in 2004 but never obtained a CLN. While the advice I received was not a formal expression of the IRS’s position on this subject, both she and the colleague that she consulted were of the view that it would be crazy for the IRS to treat such an individual as subject to the expatriation rules. I hope that those of you for whom this is a huge issue will take some measure of comfort from this update.
In an earlier post, Michael J. Miller made the following comment (my link to IRC 877A):
For those who properly ceased to be US citizens (e.g., by naturalizing in Canada with the requisite intention to no longer be US citizens) prior to enactment of the American Jobs Creation Act of 2004, the expatriation rules should not apply (notwithstanding the very poor manner in which section 877A of the Internal Revenue Code is drafted).
2004 is when the idea was first introduced that a person who had otherwise relinquished US citizenship could nevertheless continue to be treated as a US citizen for tax purposes until some “notice event” (my own, inarticulate term) took place. This new rule was set forth in former Code section 7701(n) and it is 100% clear that it was purely prospective in application. Thus, for example, as of 12/31/07 it was perfectly clear that a person who properly relinquished US citizenship in the 1970s, 1980s, 1990s, for example, was (quite properly) “grandfathered” and not affected by section 7701(n) in any way.
In 2008, section 7701(n) was removed and the rule providing for a person relinquishing citizenship to continue to be treated as a US citizen for tax purposes, until some “notice event” occurred, was incorporated into then-new section 877A. While section 877A is worded very poorly in terms of its effective date, I (and other specialists in the area) find it inconceivable that the provision was intended to take people who relinquished US citizenship many years prior to 2004, and who were quite intentionally grandfathered by 7701(n), and convert them many years after the fact into US citizens once again.
Even for the US, that would be outlandish (and this is said fully in the context of the many other notable events of the last several years). I note in particular that, if such an outlandish thing truly had been intended, there would have been some discussion of it in the legislative history — and yet there is none. If your CLN says 1776 (or even 2003) on it, rest easy. You’re not a citizen.
I did a Google search of 7701(n) and found the following information on an IRS webpage, agreeing (I think) exactly with Michael’s point (emphasis mine):
Expatriation after June 3, 2004 and before June 16, 2008
The American Jobs Creation Act (AJCA) of 2004 amends IRC section 877, which provides for an alternative tax regime for certain, expatriated individuals. Amended IRC 877 eliminates the tax avoidance criteria for imposition of the expatriation tax on certain types of income for 10 years following expatriation, and creates objective criteria to impose the tax on individuals with an average income tax liability for the 5 prior years of $127,000 for tax year 2005 ($131,000 for 2006; $136,000 for 2007; $139,000 for 2008) or a net worth of $2,000,000 on the date of expatriation. In addition, it requires individuals to certify to the IRS that they have satisfied all federal tax requirements for the 5 years prior to expatriation and requires annual information reporting for each taxable year during which an individual is subject to the rules of IRC 877.
Further, expatriated individuals will be subject to U.S. tax on their worldwide income for any of the 10 years following expatriation in which they are present in the U.S. for more than 30 days, or 60 days in the case of individuals working in the U.S. for an unrelated employer.
Finally, even if they do not meet the monetary thresholds for imposition of the IRC 877 expatriation tax, the new law (per IRC 7701(n)) provides that individuals will continue to be treated as U.S. citizens or long-term residents for U.S. tax purposes until they have notified the Secretary of the Department of State or of Homeland Security of expatriation or termination of residency. The implementation date of this provision is retroactive and applies to expatriations occurring after June 3, 2004. The expatriation is not effective until the notification and tax satisfaction certifications are filed with the IRS and the Department of State or of Homeland Security.
However, the devil is in the details. The following requirements remain in place:
Expatriation on or before June 3, 2004
The expatriation tax provisions (prior to the AJCA amendments) apply to U.S. citizens who have renounced their citizenship and long-term residents who have ended their US residency for tax purposes, if one of the principal purposes of the action is the avoidance of U.S. taxes. You are presumed to have tax avoidance as a principle purpose if:
If you meet either of the tests shown above, you may be eligible to request a ruling from the IRS that you did not expatriate to avoid U.S. taxes. You must request this ruling within one year from the date of expatriation. For information that must be included in your ruling request, see Section IV of Notice 97-19. If you receive this ruling, the expatriation tax provisions do not apply.
The expatriation tax applies to the 10-year period following the date of the expatriation action. Individuals that renounced their US citizenship and long-term residents that terminated their US residency for tax purposes on or before June 3, 2004 must file an initial Form 8854, Initial and Annual Expatriation Information Statement. For more detailed information refer to Expatriation Tax in Publication 519, U.S. Tax Guide for Aliens.
To make this all the more clearer, Publication 519 states:
Expatriation Before June 4, 2004
If you expatriated before June 4, 2004, the expatriation rules apply if one of the principal purposes of the action is the avoidance of U.S. taxes. Unless you received a ruling from the IRS that you did not expatriate to avoid U.S. taxes, you are presumed to have tax avoidance as a principal purpose if:
- Your average annual net income tax for the last 5 tax years ending before the date of your action to relinquish your citizenship or terminate your residency was more than $100,000, or
- Your net worth on the date of your action was $500,000 or more.
The amounts above are adjusted for inflation if your expatriation action is after 1997 (see Table 4-1).
Reporting requirements. If you lost your U.S. citizenship, you should have filed Form 8854 with a consular office or a federal court at the time of loss of citizenship. If you ended your long-term residency, you should have filed Form 8854 with the Internal Revenue Service when you filed your dual-status tax return for the year your residency ended. Your U.S. residency is considered to have ended when you ceased to be a lawful permanent resident or you began to be treated as a resident of another country under a tax treaty and do not waive treaty benefits.
Penalties. If you failed to file Form 8854, you may have to pay a penalty equal to the greater of 5% of the expatriation tax or $1,000. The penalty will be assessed for each year of the 10-year period beginning on the date of expatriation during which your failure to file continues. The penalty will not be imposed if you can show that the failure is due to reasonable cause and not willful neglect.Expatriation tax. The expatriation tax applies to the 10-year period following the date of expatriation or termination of residency. It is figured in the same way as for those expatriating after June 3, 2004, and before June 17, 2008. See How To Figure the Expatriation Tax (If You Expatriated Before June 17, 2008) in the next section.
This seems to clear up whether all people who expatriated before June 3, 2004, had to file Form 8854: the current version of the form is only for people who expatriate after that date. Before that date, the so-called Reed Amendment was in effect but it was not applied systematically, and I would think that the IRS is not going to focus its ire on those who have an expatriation date on their CLN of earlier than 3 June 2004, but on those whose expatriation date is after June 16, 2008. As Miller says, those who expatriated before 3 June, 2004 (i.e., the expatriation date on the CLN) are properly grandfathered and don’t have to do a “notice event” (i.e., informing the Consulate of their expatriation). The provisions for making such people pay taxes or barring them from the United States (i.e., the Reed Amendment) were ineffective and that is why the law changed drastically in 2004. I open this to further discussion, because I myself am not an expert but am only trying to understand the requirements properly.
This post was original posted on June 15, 2012
@ Em,
Yes, and as well it appears in 22 CFR s. 51.2 (a): “Passport issued to nationals only. (a) A United States passport shall be issued only to a national of the United States.”
and on the passport application and renewal forms, right above the signature box: “I declare under penalty of perjury . . . 1) I am a citizen or non-citizen national of the United States . . . ”
Yeah, I figured it was very very unlikely that someone would have a US passport without being a US national. Certainly not if they went through the normal procedure.
It is possible, though, and more to the point, *it was more common in the past*. When someone says they had a US passport, I don’t know how many decades ago they’re talking about.
I have met people who were issued US passports without being US nationals, “for services to the US” (dunno whether it was spy stuff or not); the State Department actually has discretion when issuing passports, so you can never be *sure*. There was a period during the Cold War when the US issued passports to favored citizens of certain foreign allies (going to major international conferences, stuff like that) as a courtesy, in order to get them into a particular country which didn’t accept their domestic passport.
EmBee, did you have too many sleepless nights? This seems out of character for you.
You quoted:
“1. You must be a U.S. citizen or non-citizen national.
[…]
What is a non-citizen national? Not a surprising question given the fact that non-citizen nationals are rare. Section 308 […]”
and then you asked:
‘Now, of course, if a US spy agency wants a non-USC to have a US passport for nefarious reasons’
I guess I wouldn’t be surprised if a few non-US-Nationals get US passports for nefarious reasons, but non-USCs get US passports for perfectly legitimate reasons.
In fact when a US non-citizen national applies for a certificate of US non-citizen nationality, what they get is a US passport.
I’m still trying to figure out if the US Supreme Court prevented Congress from depriving US non-citizen nationals of US nationality without their consent. The 14th Amendment only prevents Congress from doing it to citizens, but the Supreme Court used the words citizenship and nationality as if those words were synonyms, and the court ruling seems to prevent Congress from doing what Congress did to Filipinios.
@ Norman Diamond
Sleepless nights … yes … but mostly due to other matters lately. Legitimate reasons are covered in the blockquote. It’s possible non-citizen nationals might not get full US status, despite being able to get a special “delineated” US passport. I think I’ll look up Swains Island on google maps. Good grief … population 17! Maybe it’s something the USA likes to keep on hand for future weapons testing.