62 thoughts on “Why Are Americans Giving Up Citizenship? — CNBC International”

1. My initials show up for yesterday’s date, with no US City/State, so assume that is how signatures from abroad show up. After I signed, I got a verification email and followed the directions on that.

2. Thanks, MedeaFleecestealer, for posting a link to the White House petition and, Calgary411, for highlighting it at the top of this post. I put a link to it on the “Current Surveys You Can Take – Let Them Know What Your Think!” page under “Take Action!” in the sidebar.

3. Can a Marketwatch member link this site and the petition message in the article comments

   Opinion: The U.S. government’s stupid tax war on expatriates Published: Feb 20, 2015 5:30 a.m. ET

   http://www.marketwatch.com/story/the-us-governments-stupid-tax-war-on-expatriates-2015-02-20

4. Petition at 1,531 who is good at maths ?
   We have to publicize.
   If this is the 1st to get through it will mean a LOT. HAMMER all the expat sites to advertise.
   It seems as mentioned earlier that the majority of us (Americans) at home still have the values of fair play and are joining the fight (maybe even to the polling booths).
   It is that kind of action that makes us proud to be AMERICANS. Maybe we will get an underdog movie ending.

5. Remember when you post here you can copy and paste into YouTube link — click on “YouTube” in the lower right-hand corner of of “Why Are Americans Giving Up Citizenship? — CNBC International “. If it gets traction maybe some US media TV, Radio, Newspapers may take it all the way. History does repeat itself was it Paul Revere that said , “The expats are coming”

6. @Jak Dac. I hope you aren’t holding your breath. The US government won’t listen to the Taxpayer Advocate who they appointed and whose salary they pay. Why would they pay any attention to a petition submitted by a ragtag bunch of expats (i.e. tax cheats in the minds of Congress)?

   Expats have two choices: either comply or renounce. I used to be a proud American; now I’m NOT an American. The US will probably eventually get rid of CBT but it won’t happen in our lifetime.

7. @maz57

   I was thinking the same thing… they didn’t care about the experts’ testimony given or previous submissions from many… why would they care about yet another petition… the only way they will pay attention is a court case… if people don’t sue the gov’t for their wrongs.. the gov’t will rail road any & all things they can cause they figure people will do nothing or not notice to stop them… I hear rumblings of this suit… that suit… only suit I see is the one in Canada that is actually filed… The Republicans say they will file but when… since they hold both houses… they can stop this nightmare today… so far.. I only hear crickets… nothing else… No one wants to appear they are protecting *tax evaders* so have Congress & the Senate go after who can legally execute these so call agreements with foreign govts. I am not the sharpest pencil in the box… since I am stuck in this hell… but I thought of how legal these agreements are… I am sure someone in the gov’t who is better educated then I am whould have thought of it also

8. It’s certain even if the US scrapped CBT, it would come with all sorts of terms and conditions to punish all the ex-pats that flouted US tax law over the years.

   The rule should be amnesty or if you owed zero US tax all is forgiven. However the second option would get extremely complicated with one off capital gains transactions and long term pension plans. Those would have to be ‘forgiven.’ With income tax it would be fair simpler with FEIE and tax credits (except folks living in Dubai this wouldn’t work).

   Passive income would have to be excluded as well like bank interest or pension payments.

9. @Don

   Here is something people keep forgetting… Green Card/Visa holders… we are fake citizens… no vote.. no say… no representation…. in the US… we are expected to fork over just as a citizen no matter where we are… When we rec’d these cards… my family didn’t know anything about this… we were poor… welfare poor… but we worked & saved… we find out yrs later how screwed we are… alot of GC holders have one foot in their home country & one foot in the US… In home country… paid what was owed… In the US… paid what was owed… now the US says… no… u are now our tax slaves… u owe us A, B, & C… even if u had prior to the GC… we own your soul… this can & will wipe us out… yet no one says boo about that… I make sure I tell everyone I meet… hell no… go elsewhere. Yet no one wants to talk about that… my family should have been illegals… we would have gotten what needed then snuck out with what we had without paying taxes on it..

10. Someone put a lot of effort in this video which clearly demonstrates the parallels between Nazi Germany and US treatment of expats:

11. On a business trip to Latin America not too long ago, I saw a newspaper report which noted that 100-plus nationals of a certain South American country (whose name I will withhold for various reasons), have been giving up their GCs on a MONTHLY basis. The report came out Nov. 2014. The article contextualized these GC abandonments in terms of improvement of the economy in the South American country in question. This is highly suspect. Latin Americans do NOT simply abandon work permits, green cards, and any other kinds of US visas even when they return to their countries to work bc these permits are hard to get and therefore highly prized. The paper did not give away the reason for the abandonments bc of deference to the US Embassy since the State Dept. is apparently planning to remove the tourist visa requirement for nationals of this country in several years time. (Nothing is laid out in stone, but there is “talk,” according to this article). In short, these GC abandonments are a very serious matter and, I am absolutely certain, quite a shock to the State Dept. (As in, “oh, no, not these people too?”) And the real damage hasn’t even been done yet. During my trip I chatted with a number of people who were so-called “US Persons” working in their country of origin, and not one had an idea about this twisted, presumptious piece of legislation and its dubious reporting requirements. When I informed them, they were in total shock. As @US_Foreign_Person notes, many GC holders have a foot –or at least a toe– in their country of origin and likely a foot in the US. Other questions also came to mind when reading this article. How did the above-mentioned newspaper get the numbers they quoted –100-plus GC holders PER MONTH… How is it possible that they know the MONTHLY numbers since NOVEMBER — also quite a vague time period and not up to journalistic standards. The numbers on the shame-and-name list appear on a quarterly basis and I haven’t seen that many nationals from this country on it. Who fed the reporter this information? BTW, last year someone I know called the US Consulate in this country several times to make an appointment to hand in his GC, and the officials never got back him. He had to make an appointment at a US Consulate in another Latin American country. So are these GC holders abandoning in their country of origin or elsewhere? And are they even bothering to fill out their final tax returns, along with form 8854, which details their holdings and makes clear whether they must pay an exit tax? Likely not… If all this is happening in unexpected quarters, what else may be happening… And what will be the result of so many who will resent the US going forward… Sheer lack of vision…

12. Sign the petition here https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/tax-us-citizens-residency-and-not-citizenship-remove-fatca-requirements-we-already-pay-taxes-abroad/dwZ1c5wL