Innocente lands the first punch again: the latest “name-and-shame list” has been placed on public inspection for printing in tomorrow’s Federal Register. You can view it here. It is, of course, nearly two weeks past the October 30th deadline for the list to be printed, but perhaps it’s because the list compiler is still getting used to her new role: Ann V. Gaudelli has moved on to bigger and better things, and the naming & shaming is now the responsibility of Dorothy A. Harbison.
The list contains 560 names, down from 1,130 last quarter. However, it remains anyone’s guess what the real number of people giving up citizenship might be. The government shutdown will likely have affected the speed at which the State Department processes Certificates of Loss of Nationality and forwards them to the IRS, just as it also caused a slowdown in the FBI’s additions to NICS in all categories (about which I will post sometime later this week).
On a closely related topic, the U.S. government is also lowballing its latest estimate of how many people file Form I-407 to give up their U.S. green cards. In a Federal Register notice in late September, USCIS projected that only 9,371 people will file Form I-407 in 2014. However, according to statistics which Shadow Raider obtained from them through an FOIA request, the average annual number of green card abandonments by Form I-407 in the past decade was 15,354 — see our earlier post about those statistics. (And of course, this number does not include people who let their green cards expire without formally abandoning them.)
Furthermore, out of five public figures known to have given up U.S. citizenship between March and June 2013, only one appeared on the list: Sharon Roulstone, a candidate for public office in the Cayman Islands. Taiwanese basketball player Quincy Davis, René González of the “Cuban Five“, Pakistani politician Fauzia Kasuri, and Hong Kong banker Marshall Nicholson failed to have their names printed.
Among earlier relinquishments, Turks & Caicos Islands Deputy Premier Akierra Missick showed up almost a year late, finally putting to rest any claims that she had faked her renunciation. However, other ex-citizens of 2012 vintage such as Japanese literature professor Donald Keene and Zurich mayor Corine Mauch still have not appeared. In total, out of the 61 public figures with Wikipedia entries who were reported in the media to have given up U.S. citizenship since 2006, 25 have never had their names printed in the Federal Register, contrasting sharply with only two or three missing names in the list’s first decade from 1996 to 2005.
Congratulations swisspinoy and spouse. Best wishes to you and your family.
How does it look to the world when US citizens abroad rejoice that their children either weren’t born US citizens and US ‘taxable persons’ or are now successfully on a list of renunciants?
I made the list. Or at least I think I did. Everything else is correct but they misspelled my first name. As for appearing on the list, I ain’t bovvered, as Lauren Cooper would say. It’s a non-event for me. But I’m insulted by the fact that they can’t be arsed to spell my name correctly. I find it disrespectful. The IRS really can’t find 3 seconds to proofread what they typed? Renounced in early June 2013 and received CLN on 4 July :).
As a reminder, I have a FOIA request pending with the Department of State, asking for the number of renunciations and loss of nationality requests filed at US embassies and consulates. They don’t keep track of CLNs, but they do record the number of requests, so they should respond with the data this time.
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@AnonAnon: “information” is one of the three kinds of documents in 6039G(d): “the statement under subsection (a)” (i.e. a Form 8854), “each certificate as to the loss of American nationality”, and “the name of each lawful permanent resident” who gave up his green card or had it revoked. “within the meaning of section 877(a) or 877A” is the big debate. 877A does define what loss of citizenship means (in (g)(4)), and it looks like it includes) everyone. 877(a) doesn’t define losing citizenship (I used to have a theory that “losing citizenship within the meaning of 877(a)” only meant covered expatriates while “losing citizenship within the meaning of 877A” means everyone, but that doesn’t match up at all with how the Federal Register actually seems to work.) So basically, “This list contains some names” (did I steal that one from you? or from Innocente? can’t remember by now.)
@edelweiss: You’re in august company, the IRS misspells the name of pretty much all the important people, including the President of Lithuania.
@swisspinoy: congrats on the birth! may you all stay healthy & safe!
@Eric, thanks for the clarification. Yes, I think it was Innocente who came up with “This list contains some names” — a most appropriate description. The actual preamble to the list in the Federal Register remains gobbledygook to most people, and, as MarkTwain observed, some people will continue to take the number of names on the list, incorrectly, as an exact number of renunciations for the latest quarter. I hope ShadowRaider’s FOIA request bears fruit soon so we can start seeing true figures and trends of renunciation and relinquishment of citizenship.
Another thought: I wonder if it’s possible to obtain the numbers of forms 8854 filed with the IRS. That count wouldn’t cover old-time relinquishers like me but should track recent renunciants, relinquishers and green-card relinquishers fairly accurately, with some delay, except for those who just say “F*ck the IRS. I’m never going to the US again.” I’m guessing, however, that the IRS doesn’t maintain separate counts of form 8854 filings, unless those numbers are somehow available through the paperwork reducation act process.
Congratulations and cheers to all who have recently received CLNs!
560 newly freed souls. Congratulations to each of them.
WSJ writes about the latest list. They quote an immigration lawyer at Fragomen and an OVDP lawyer at Obeid & Lowenstein, and give the usual hat tip to Andrew Mitchel for tracking the data but don’t otherwise quote him. Still repeating verbatim the claim that the list includes green-card holders, without any evidence.
http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702304243904579195923107439130
Congratulations swisspinoy and family!
For those who are not clear about who gets on the list. My self and adult children who RELINQUISHED were NOT COVERED EXPATRIATES. I had also wondered if there were any criteria as to who makes the list and who does not. I can confirm the above are NOT criteria for who gets on to the list. It appears to be totally happenstance.
Renounced or Relinquished, covered or not covered has no bearing on who is on the list.
Renounced and received CLN in 2012, but still not on the list.
@SwissPinoy – Herzlichen Glückwunsch!
Lynnley Browning at CNN Fortune writes about the new list.
http://finance.fortune.cnn.com/2013/11/14/citizenship-renunciation-taxes/
She covers FATCA & banking issues in a reasonably balanced fashion in the body of her article, but the hook paragraph is anything but neutral: “Time to dump your American passport — and with it, presumably, your bothersome U.S. tax bill. The reason, international tax lawyers say, may have less to do with offshore tax evasion and more with a new generation of sophisticated — and legal — tax planning.” There’s also a rather misleading mention that “Even the U.S. Embassy in Bern has a ‘renunciations’ tab on its website”, as if it were the only one and not one of dozens of U.S. embassies around the world that have such a page.
Quote: “Even the U.S. Embassy in Bern has a ‘renunciations’ tab on its website”, as if it were the only one and not one of dozens of U.S. embassies around the world that have such a page.
The Tel Aviv embassy recently added a link for renunciations to it’s website.
Number of Taxpayers Who Renounced U.S. Citizenship Skyrockets to All-Time Record High
A few interesting comments here… including, “don’t let the door hit you on your back side…”
An analyst noted that there are only 63 had Korean-language given names in the 2012 name & shame lists, versus the 19xx some Eric had found. 30 to one ratio of data differences.
I renounced in December 2012 and my CLN was issued in January but my name still has not appeared on the name and shame list.
As per the “Late and Incomplete Quarterly list (July-Sep 2013), I did the oath of renunciation on July 23, 2013 administered by the US consulate in Calgary, Canada. After paying a lawyer $7500, paying the $450 to the consul, and being assured by all parties that everything was in order and I should be getting my Certificate of loss of citizenship, (postdated 23/July/2013) “shortly”; as of Nov/15,2013, I still haven’t received the certificate and my name is not on the Quarterly List (July-Sep 2013. The bungling and incompetence of the US bureaucracy has once again reinforced my decision to expatriate. They can’t even let you leave without a foul-up!
@James A. Hirt
Congratulations! A steep price for the lawyer, but you managed to buy your freedom from slavery.
My CLN took a while to come, but when it finally did, I actually kissed it and broke open a bottle of sparkling wine (couldn’t afford champagne).
Katie Little at CNBC wrote much more balanced article than CNN, with no major errors in the article body (aside from believing the IRS data and claiming it includes green card holders), and some good quotes from lawyers:
http://www.cnbc.com/id/101202754
Only things I can really complain about are the headline (“Tax code driving Americans out of the country”) and the lede paragraph either, which — out of the thousands of people who have given up citizenship in the past year and a half — insists on bringing up Saverin & Rich again.
@Joe Blow:
Lynnley Browning is a product of wealth, privilege and connections. Her father was a (prominent) medical doctor in Oklahoma City, she attended Phillips-Exeter Academy boarding school and Princeton (BA-Slavic Languages). In 2012 her DOJ connections were feeding her exclusive stories. Relevant translation from this 2012 NZZ article:
“Through a Reuters reporter the US Justice Department is applying pressure on the negotiations led by (Swiss) State Secretary, Michael Ambuehl, for a global bank deal…. “
“Lynnley Browning, the reporter with a direct line to the US Justice Department (DOJ), has been writing for a short time for the news agency, Reuters. The top stories coming out of the DOJ, which previously appeared in the New York Times, are now being published by the news agency.”
http://www.nzz.ch/finanzen_alt/nachrichten/macht-justizdepartments-druck-auf-staatssekretaer-ambuehl-1.11097258
I would not expect that she understands nor cares about the difficulties that FATCA is causing Americans abroad who earn $50,000 a year. She is intent on making a career and has her supporters in the DOJ who will continue to feed her information so long as she reports what they want to hear.
I am still waiting for a CLN and believe there is a considerable delay possibly due to the shut-down.
Innocente,
Your’e right, Lynnley is not a professional journalist, but rather a propagandist for Obama’s DOJ.
@Eric, one thing that bothers me about Katie Little’s CNBC piece is her statement that “Unlike many countries, the U.S. taxes people based on citizenship rather than on residency.” As we at the Isaac Brock Society know, “many” is way too weak and can let homelanders react with an “Oh well, other countries tax people based on citizenship, too.” It would be much better if she had said “unlike almost all other countries …”, or better still, “unlike all but one other country …”
WalletPop Canada: More Americans Than Ever Are Renouncing Their Citizensip – Desire to Escape Taxes
Talk about the IRS PR, here is more claptrap about ‘flying the coop’ in a ‘desire to escape US taxes.’
and…
Huffington Post Comments to “More Americans Than Ever Are Renouncing Their Citizenship. Guess Why “
These articles must be very confusing to the uninformed reader when they start out saying the rich celebrities are fleeing the US to escape onerous tax obligations and then tell the reader that your tax obligations become more complex when you live abroad!
If we were to rank the articles, this one would probably rank among the most nasty: