No time for a detailed analysis, but the Quarterly Publication of Individuals Who Have Chosen to Expatriate for Q4 2017 has just been placed on public inspection for printing in Friday’s Federal Register, ten days later than required by law.
I count 685 names in this list, bringing the total of “published expatriates” for 2017 to 5,133 individuals. In contrast, NICS added 1,017 people to the “Renounced U.S. Citizenship” category from October to December of last year, and another 353 in January. This quarter’s Federal Register list still does not include some public figures known to have given up US citizenship more than a year ago, including Japanese legislator Kimi Onoda and Ghanaian Deputy Minister of Finance Charles Adu Boahen.
| First quarter | Second quarter | Third quarter | Fourth quarter | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Month, year |
Addi- tions |
Month-end total |
Month, year |
Addi- tions |
Month-end total |
Month, year |
Addi- tions |
Month-end total |
Month, year |
Addi- tions |
Month-end total |
| Jan 2017 | 377 | 38,380 | Apr 2017 | 460 | 39,947 | Jul 2017 | 329 | 41,001 | Oct 2017 | 284 | 41,960 |
| Feb 2017 | 344 | 38,724 | May 2017 | 381 | 40,328 | Aug 2017 | 326 | 41,327 | Nov 2017 | 427 | 42,387 |
| Mar 2017 | 763 | 39,487 | Jun 2017 | 344 | 40,672 | Sep 2017 | 349 | 41,676 | Dec 2017 | 306 | 42,693 |
| Q1 total | 1,484 | Q2 total | 1,185 | Q3 total | 1,004 | Q4 total | 1,017 | ||||
| 82 FR 21877 | 1,313 | 82 FR 36188 | 1,759 | 82 FR 50960 | 1,376 | 83 FR 5xxx | 685 | ||||
| Annual totals for 2017 | Fed. Reg. | 5,133 | NICS | 4,690 | |||||||
Fundamentally, nothing much has changed. After all the broken promises about how tax reform would save us, it just turned out to be another bonanza for accountants and lawyers. The IRS still can’t publish a simple list of names in a timely fashion. Trump and Tillerson’s underlings continue to spout the same insulting excuses as Obama and Kerry’s underlings did for the $2,350 rip-off.
People who can’t hide from this whole mess continue to face absurd wait times for appointments and CLNs (made worse by ongoing chaos in the State Department), while those who are able to hide have even stronger reasons to keep on hiding.
Yep, nothing has made me feel so good as seeing my name on the list a while back!
YES!!!
Seems weird to say that about your own country– but considering everything after, I’m just relieved AF.
Good luck to the rest here, whichever way you decide.
Man, am I glad I got out of there when I did, about a year before the fee (punishment) went up. Plan to stay the heck away from that place.
I renounced last september and received my CLN in December, but still don’t see my name in the lists. Are they complete? or do they take a few months before they register it?
@Juliette, their list misses sometimes a few people but rest assure some of my friends who were missing in that list for sometime have now appeared in some other lists as they are slow in updating their data sometimes. Congratulations you all and welcome to the free and brave world. Irony they used to say this about US, Welcome to the free world, land of the brave and free decades ago. Now this is the land of Iron curtain the same it wanted to destroy always. Even Russians get free pass after leaving their country but we don’t.
And the numbers for each year are….
Is it up?…..
The month end total of 42,693 does not mean much by itself. How many over what period. How about since FATCA enacted. A chart would show how flat the trend was for many years until recently.
I don’t know where I saw the year-by-year chart (should have bookmarked it), but it appears as though renunciations are slightly down compared to last year. I find that difficult to believe. Unless it is indeed due to instability at the State Department.
I’m no closer to seeing my name on that list. One can only dream.
Oops. Here’s the graph:
http://intltax.typepad.com/intltax_blog/2018/02/2017-fourth-quarter-published-expatriates-first-annual-decrease-in-five-years.html
OK sure, the number of people who have CHOSEN to expatriate is down because of Trump. The number of people who have been forced to expatriate by FATCA and other abuses has to be inferred.
The official figure has always shown up less than the actual number of people renouncing. I see a lot of Arabian, Chinese and Indians too in that list as it seems many newly immigrated and became citizens or were born here and left the country early and now wanting to get rid of their toxic passport label. US govt gang has made it impossible for any one to live outside USA with their shenanigans.
Oh dear Barbara, I had hoped you would be well on your way by now. Is it still going to happen?
@Juliette
I renounced years ago and my name has never shown up on the list.
I`ve got my CLN in a safe.
“Trump and Tillerson’s underlings continue to spout the same insulting excuses as Obama and Kerry’s underlings did for the $2,350 rip-off.”
Though they’re now openly blaming it all on FATCA:
In collecting the CLN fee, the Department has not restricted or burdened the right of expatriation. Further, the fee is not punitive and is unrelated to the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) mentioned in some comments, except to the extent that the Act caused an increase in consular workload that must be paid for by user fees.
https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2018/01/31/2018-01850/schedule-of-fees-for-consular-services-department-of-state-and-overseas-embassies-and-consulates
Trump and Tillerson’s underlings continue to spout the same insulting excuses as Obama and Kerry’s underlings did for the $2,350 rip-off.”
Though they’re now openly blaming it all on FATCA:
https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2018/01/31/2018-01850/schedule-of-fees-for-consular-services-department-of-state-and-overseas-embassies-and-consulates
“In collecting the CLN fee, the Department has not restricted or burdened the right of expatriation.”
This is the kind of hogwash that just increases my loathing for these vile beings.
It is perfectly obvious that a fee of $9,400 for a family of four who cannot afford to comply with the US tax code and need to renounce for that reason are the very people who cannot find $9,400 in order to renounce!
Something like half of all US families don’t have enough financial slack to cover an unexpected $500 dollar emergency, yet making a $9,400 bill for a family of four has not restricted or burdened the right of expatriation?!
Of course it bloody well has!
I hate these people, I hate them so much it hurts.
@Mike I am with you on everything but hating them is not going to make them go away or disappear except your renunciation will. This is the irony of US that even though they realise their excessive compliances and costly CBT is causing many US expats nightmares and paying every year someone to do yoir taxes as they are too complex. Now they are asking transition taxes too (courtesy of Republicans this time )on small business overseas it is just too much now to bear. Best thing is to get out before it starts hurting all over. No wonder people in HK were saying get out and get rid of it in 2010 and we were just thinking we are complying so we are okay. Now all the bank rejection letters and outright rejection is making life miserable. Not to mention expensive CPA costs every year.
I intuit that they are somewhat anxious lest the bundle of interlocking Treasury/State requirements which make it essential for some USCs to renounce, while simultaneously making it difficult for them to do so, might gradually stop being blamed on the Democrats and start being blamed on the Republicans.
I believe you can pay the renunciation fee with a credit card. I never thought I would ever say this but surely it would be worth going into credit card debt to get those assholes off your backs,
Mike, I share your sentiments….
That defines “punitive” to these people? Excessive fees? I read somewhere that the State Department spends a lot of energy documenting the renunciation in case someone wants to have their Citizenship reinstated later. I bet they can justify every penny they spend, including grilling people in determining whether someone is serious about renouncing.
There’s some circular reasoning going on in that State Department comment. I’m still shaking my head.
Hogwash. Just typical government doublespeak; the truth is the exact opposite of what they say.
With respect to the total number of renunciations per year, I believe that figure has plateaued because they purposely restrict the number of available appointments. Plus people are finally getting educated on this; the overseas reach of the IRS is greatly exaggerated. Many have now figured out that its easier and cheaper to simply forget about the whole business and drop off the radar (if they were ever on the radar in the first place).
It’s possible I missed it, but I never found my name in the Fed Reg either, though three of my kids’ names showed up there.
True @maz57. I did it for my children in USA otherwise I did not care too. I paid a huge price for the benefit of my children only. Now I am regretting it.
Well if the state department is restricting the numbers of people they allow to renounce it’s purely political, not due to budget constraints. The fee is supposed to cover their costs. Just hire more people!
@BB they are purposely doing it late as their first appointment for renunciation came up to be two months in April 2018 for consulate in HK. The second one will be months later as I was told by someone.
“Seems weird to say that about your own country”
– It’s not *my* country. I was born there, but I have nothing to do with it. I didn’t grow up there, and didn’t consume any of its (defunct) services.
They insist of treating my like a slave, but I’m a slave only if I admit of being so. Fuck the USA, fuck the IRS, fuck the DoS. I’m not an American, and I won’t comply to any of their Fascist laws.
That’s the spirit. Fuck ’em. It’s easier than most people think.