On February 28 2019 John Richardson published a post in TaxConnections entitled: “The USA Of The 21st Century Is Like Britain In The 19th Century”.
Yesterday (March 13), he published a NEW post entitled: “The United States Imposes A Separate And Much More Punitive Tax On U.S. Citizens Who Are Residents Of Other Countries”
You can read and contribute to the new post on this link.
You can comment on John Richardson’s new TaxConnections post.
Imagine if you were a family of 5 wanting to renounce…nearly 10 thousand dollars! In no way does it cost the US gov’t $2350 to process a couple of pieces of paper– that’s just ridiculous. Bring up the person on the computer, check their tax status, sign paper. Done.
I consider CBT/FATCA victims as similar to the slaves who were allowed to work on Sundays to buy their freedom.
Jane – that’s why I think someone should challenge the renunciation fee in (U.S. federal) court.
“Bring up the person on the computer, check their tax status, sign paper.”
No, that procedure does not include checking their tax status.
Unfortunately challenging something in court costs about a million dollars.
In any case, it’s the IGA1 residence country that requires its US-born citizens to renounce or be deprived of their data protection/privacy rights.
Otherwise, there would be no need to renounce.
Legal action against this residence-country behaviour is underway in Canada and France.
@Kelly. While I wholeheartedly agree, I don’t think that will ever happen. People of limited means can barely scrape together the fee and they would rather use the first available $2350 to be free from the US for good.
Wealthy people who could afford a court challenge would rather just pay the money and be free of the US once and for all. Once free, why would they then turn around and punish themselves by filing a long, expensive lawsuit in a US court?
Moreover, if the residence countries had notified all US-born citizens of the decision to strip dual US/* citizens of these specific data-protection/privacy rights, those who wished to renounce US citizenship could have done so for free or for a much lower charge.
What I meant with challenging the fee in court is some kind of class-action lawsuit, not a specific individual.