Good article:
Bruce Bartlett: Will Rich People Desert the U.S. if Their Taxes Are Raised?: nyti.ms/JbSSrl – It’s not the taxes, its the compliance!
— U.S. Citizen Abroad (@USCitizenAbroad) May 9, 2012
Great commentary:
They’re not shooting rich jaywalkers bit.ly/Jf6cuT Bruce Bartlett misses the point.
— Joe Kristan (@joebwan) May 9, 2012
Interesting “comment on the comments” – A “homelander” who might understand:
How sad to see how insensitive so many of the comments below are to fellow Americans who are simply protesting against being made scapegoats by misguided US government tax policies. No other country in the world penalizes its citizens with double taxation requirements like this. We should be encouraging our citizens, especially students and young professionals, to benefit from seeing the world and working in foreign countries if possible. But with these kinds of rules they will not go abroad, and foreign employers will not hire them.
It would benefit us all to have a citizenry with a broader worldview. And maybe then we wouldn’t see so many of the ungenerous and ignoble comments that have been filed in response to this well-written and genuine posting.
Interesting, I am inclined to disagree with him, I think Bruce Bartlett may be downplaying the effects of extraterritorial taxation a bit. But how will we ever know when those renouncing stay tight lipped because of the Reed Amendment?
“It is undoubtedly the case that the vast bulk of those renouncing American citizenship do so for reasons unrelated to taxation. Americans who marry foreign nationals, for example, often adopt the citizenship of their spouse’s nation. Also, many of those on the Treasury list are not actually American citizens, but foreigners who had permanent residence status in the United States. Those born with dual citizenship sometimes prefer to have only one to simplify their lives.”
My life was pretty simple before the IRS came to town. I was able to marry, vote and do anything a Canadian can do. Until now, the closest I came to wanting to expatriate was after I was rejected for employment by Canada Post back in the 70’s because I was not Canadian (they’ve since changed that requirement) I didn’t want to join the army or anything deemed and expatriating act. It’s the tax, or at least the burden it places on the citizen, IMHO.
@bubblebustin; it’s also the escalation of the demands – as if FBARs, and all the other reporting and threatening penalties aren’t enough, they invented FATCA – with even more potent and complex rules and another layer of fines. The US has demonstrated that there will be no end to the demands and threats, ever. There will be little or no mitigation. There will be continuing calls to get rid of the FEIE, and more talk of how we don’t pay some entirely imaginary ‘fair’ share – forever. Our non-US families will have to deal with the IRS when we die.
All the evidence demonstrates that we can expect no fairness and no justice from the US. They refuse to recognize that we cannot buy and use US savings vehicles, and that we have any right to the same kinds of banking that those inside the US enjoy. That will not change. I am so heartsick and so sorry that I didn’t give up my US citizenship in the period when dual status was not allowed by Canada long ago. I valued an imaginary and sentimental relationship that now in very real terms condemns both me AND my non-US family to be fined into the dust for something I had no idea about.
The Reed Amendment was a very clever gag order indeed.
I expect more (Berlin Wall-like) obstacles to be placed in the way of expatriation.
It is probably better to renounce now and get it over with rather then “sitting tight” only to later find oneself ensconced in concrete and barbed wire.
@Joe Expat; yes, I believe that they have been deliberate in trying to plug up or silence opposition. Even without the Reed Amendment, people are just very fearful – and with good reason. The US should be very ashamed at governing us and our US inherited status children through fear and fines – and making expatriation difficult. One would almost think it was Eritrea or another egregiously non-democratic country we were trying to fend off.
@badger, yes there is the added stress of having to walk on constantly shifting sands. You can’t change the past, but you can learn from it and mitigate the damage that’s been done and prevent any more in the future. Do not despair, there is a chance sanity will be restored.
I’m surprised the US didn’t give Eritrea a medal for its support and adherence to the US policy of extorting tribute from its ex-pats.
After all, Eritrea is the US’ sole ally in this regard.
@badger
There was some discussion back in the 1990s of putting sanctions on countries that had too many renounced US citizens living in them. I am actually hoping this comes back.
Sounds like something dreamed up by Nazis.
I relinquished because of US extra-territorial taxation. If you relinquish they can’t implement the Reed Amendment–at least not according to the letter of the law.
thanks @bubblebustin, @Tim – didn’t know that,
and Joe – yes, if we could keep putting the US and Eritrea in the same sentence, and get wider repetition of the pairing, that would be great.