The Q1 2014 Quarterly Publication of Individuals Who Have Chosen to Expatriate has been placed on public inspection for printing in the Federal Register for 2 May 2014, two days later than required by 26 USC § 6039G(d). This is the seventh quarter in a row in which the Internal Revenue Service has failed to publish their list of certain ex-Americans by the legally-mandated deadline, bringing their all-time compliance rate to a dismal 27.5%.
One famous name did appear: “Tina Turner”, in precisely that form — rather surprising, since as far as I know that’s not her civil name in the first place. However, contrary to my prediction last time, the overall rate of missing names does not seem to have come down as much as expected. We still have not seen one-quarter of the famous people known to have renounced in 2013: the names of Cuban intelligence officer René González, Saint Vincent & the Grenadines’ former U.N. Representative Camillo Gonsalves, and Pakistani politician Fauzia Kasuri are absent.
The IRS’ utter inability to publish a simple list of names in a complete and timely fashion just fills you with confidence that they’re going to be able handle all that FATCA data fairly and competently, right?
As always, congratulations to Canadian anthropologists and insurance agents, Thai schoolteachers, fresh Singaporean university graduates, and every other ordinary emigrant and accidental American whose name was included in a list which delusional politicians think covers only “a handful of the wealthiest of the wealthy”, and my sympathies to those who for whatever reason did not have their names included.
As far as I can tell, 1001 is the highest first “First Quarter” number ever. 47% more that “First Quarter” of 2013. I wish the Media would take notice and demand why?
Its 25 C in Vancouver right now, so I found a “winter ale” beer brewed by Granville Island brewing. Seems a fitting acronym faced by ex-Americans in Canada. Toronto, I know the winter you have been through.
@MontrealFatcaOff, Yes, 1001 is the highest number ever in a first quarter, and the second highest number ever in any quarter. The highest was 1130 in the second quarter of 2013.
I still think the real number is even higher. The Department of State expects to answer my FOIA request in two months.
It’s been like 9-10 months since I turned in my forms, still no CLN or name appearing on these lists. Hmmm.. guess I just have to keep waiting. I propose we rename the list to: “The Freedom List” 😛
Andrew Mitchel, Paul Caron (TaxProf blog), and Jacob Gershman at the WSJ all have posts/articles up about The List:
http://taxprof.typepad.com/taxprof_blog/2014/05/number-of-taxpayers-.html
http://intltax.typepad.com/intltax_blog/2014/05/2014_first_quarter_published_expatriates_second_highest_ever.html
http://blogs.wsj.com/law/2014/05/01/number-of-americans-renouncing-citizenship-on-record-pace/
CLN forms turned in Aug 6, 2012.
CLN approved and stamped Nov 21, 2012.
Notified by Consulate Dec 7, 2012 (4 months after which was excellent service).
Picked up CLN Dec 12, 2012.
Still not posted yet.
It would be interesting to know what are the average wait times for others to be posted?
I’m sure this is written somewhere on the site, but….
Does this list contain just renunciations? Or does it include relinquishments and/or people giving up green cards etc?
I relinquished in Sept 2013, not there yet. Received CLN a few months ago.
@shunrata: the list definitely includes (some) relinquishments. Tina Turner relinquished instead of renouncing and she’s in this quarter’s list. Petros also relinquished and showed up a year-and-a-half ago.
The list claims to include long-term former green card holders, but I’ve never actually found one in there. I don’t see how it’s mathematically possible that it does include them; last year the FBI said there were 3,100 renunciations alone, and in addition USCIS says there’s 15k to 20k people giving up green cards every year, but the Federal Register list only had 3,000 names in it.
@ Pukekonz-yes I think the Freedom List is an extremely good name. was chatting in pub last night to friends I hadn’t seen in a while, telling them that I am now british Citizen and all about FATCA etc….. there were dropped jaws, bug eyes and lots of “you cannot be serious”…. oh yes I was -deadly deadly serious…….
some of those folks migth have their own OMG moments coming up fairly quickly.
Renounced 2012 and still not on the list…
Son and daughter renounced and were listed on the “Expatriate list” about 1 year later. They were both born in Canada to US parents; thus, their expatriation would have been fairly straight forward (no review of whether there might be exlt tax).
Hubby renounced 18 months ago and still has not been listed. Now, he had been filing regularly since we moved here in 1969 so the IRS has lots on back record and, as a US-born person, he may have needed to be “looked at more closely”. Could that be a reason they haven’t passed his name on yet – – that the IRS is still “examining/investigating” the “allowability” of this dastardly act?
@ Eric – – it may be worthwhile to send this information (about greencard relinquishments not being on the expatriation list) to some of the journalists and Tax-info bloggers who are quoting only the 3000 figure from 2013. Perhaps they can investigate further and even if they do not they could tell their readers about this very incomplete reporting.
@Shadowraider
Will you be getting any demographic data like age and gender? I had an idea of doing something with first names, but if you are getting actual data, I won’t bother.
@Chrystal London
Good on you for telling your friends about FATCA. I think we need to get the word out so that people will have some idea of how to prepare themselves. Not happy with the IRS for lack of publicity, not happy with the banks for cutting it so close to the wire on compliance..
From now on, the USA should call this list the “Name-And-Not-stupid” list.
@Eric
Not sure that the list does claim to contain previous green card holders.
The federal register blurb states…
“For purposes of this listing, long-term residents, as defined in section 877(e)(2), are treated as if they were citizens of the United States who LOST citizenship.”
I think this is classic US Gov doubletalk ..’who LOST citizenship’ rather than ‘who have CHOSEN to expatriate’ So previous green card holders would not be included on the list.
Was this statement intended to mislead?
Another great post, Eric. I recognize three names on the latest FR list as those of people I may know or whose parents I may know. Two are unusual names; so I’m fairly sure about those. The third is not so unusual; so it could be considered slanderous to the person by that name whom I do know for the FR to print their name on the list. Meanwhile, there are more names of renunciants or relinquishers I DO know personally (including my own) that have never appeared on any FR list.
It remains such a strange, misleading document — and an official US government publication at that, mandated by US law, and implemented by its own bureaucracy: “Team 103, Examinations Operations—Philadelphia Compliance Services” !
Wait times are increasing. This is probably the max they can process and report under the current processes in place. They should bring in more manpower, create mass or drive-through renunciations. Who says governments can’t generate revenue?
@AnonAnon
The point about the potential for slander is a good one. I only looked up a few to examine the gender balance and some of the foreign names are quite common..
Women’s names noticeably outnumber men’s (thank goodness very few Robins). Male/female ratio suggests a fairly old group 55-65 average or that something is affecting women.
@Publius, I only requested the total number per year. They might send the data broken down by embassy/consulate, because that’s how it’s collected, but no personal information like age or gender.
@Publius, it’s only speculation of course, but in my generation (senior citizens now), a couple’s country of residence tended to be where the husband worked. So if a US woman married a non-US man, they would tend to settle in the man’s country of origin, with the woman keeping her US citizenship. But if a non-US woman married a US man, they would be more likely to settle in the US. Thus, assuming such mixed-citizenship marriages occurred in roughly equal numbers, I would expect there would be more US women citizens who were long-time residents abroad than US men citizens who were long-time residents abroad. Does that make sense?
Robert Wood wrote:
“What is often called consular expatriations, where people don’t file exit tax forms with the IRS, are apparently not counted.”
http://www.forbes.com/sites/robertwood/2014/05/03/americans-are-renouncing-citizenship-at-record-pace-and-many-arent-even-counted/
Does this mean that duals since birth are not counted even when they file 8854?
Are there any duals from birth here who’ve shown up on the list?
Yes, my daughter is on the list (not for this quarter), born in Canada to two US parents. She did live and work in the US for about 7 years before returning to Canada.
I think saddened’s son is on the list also.
SwissPinoy & bubblebustin –
Duals from birth on list? Yes.
I was a dual from birth and my name was on a previous list. My name was on the list before the 8854 was due.