Just Saying No: Not Renouncing/Relinquishing Nor Complying
Some people cannot afford to renounce (or relinquish and get a CLN) and some people will not renounce or relinquish because they do not consider themselves to be US citizens.
This thread is a place for people in this situation to share information and experiences. Thanks for sharing — your stories will be very helpful to others!
The IRS really doesn’t care about this stuff, we’ve learned. I renounced two years ago without filing a thing before or after; I haven’t heard a peep and expect I never will. Our adult child is in your son’s situation; they likely won’t renounce because why bother, they can keep it a secret forever.
Just Saying No: Not Renouncing/Relinquishing Nor Complying. Any issues with the estate upon death for people in this group? No US tax number, but US place of birth is on the Canadian passport.
@Dorian
Nobody has reported anything here, to my knowledge. I’ve not heard of this happening but I’m not an estate lawyer or otherwise involved in that business so what do I know?
Place of birth will be on the death certificate.
This was a factor in my decision to renounce. The concern is that an overzealous executor might panic due to their own potential US tax liability and attempt to bring the estate into US tax compliance. This would be expensive and time-consuming.
It would be difficult to set up a trust without the lawyer, accountant or money manager discovering US citizenship and potentially insisting on proper reporting.
Dorian. Depends. 1. Any heirs living in the US? 2. Any US situated property? If no ongoing connection to the US and assuming the estate isn’t ginormous, there is no problem.
In our case, we have children and grandchildren living in the US. We hope to leave them something significant although a better estate plan is to give most of it before we die. Problem is we don’t know how much we will need until then.
So, my spouse, the US citizen renounced a number of years ago. It took us 5 years of planning to avoid the exit tax.