The number of people giving up their US citizenship to become British has surged thanks to complex tax rules introduced by the American tax authorities.
11:40AM GMT 02 Mar 2013
London-based American lawyers, who specialise in tax and immigration, report a threefold increase over the last five years in the number of American citizens who are giving up their citizenship – a process known as “renunciation”.
Also in the news today:
Fleeing Abroad May Not Cut Your Taxes
RESHMA KAPADIA – SATURDAY, MARCH 2, 2013
As anxiety rises about the increasing tax burden on the world’s richest, some boldface names have taken drastic steps. French actor Gérard Depardieu recently bid adieu to France and accepted Russian citizenship, and Tina Turner is giving up her U.S. citizenship for Switzerland. Golfer Phil Mickelson got an earful after publicly raising the prospects of making “drastic changes” due to California’s rising taxes.
Plenty of other Americans are considering similar moves.
The article is back up now with 562 comments. Here’s an interesting comment:
The Ensor article says “………. “The US Embassy in London has responded to that demand – and quite a long queue for renunciation appointments – by streamlining the process.
“We are told they have trained additional officers to reside over renunciation processes.” …….”
@badger, well with the 48 or so listed on the Federal Register, the 5 or so who renounced in the UK must have been causing a whole lot of trouble, coming back multiple times over several months, creating the need for the US Embassy in London to train many more officers to deal with them! Now, if this number doubled to 10, the US Embassy in London would have to outsource to China. Yet, China is likely also overburdened with the 2 or so individuals who have been coming back multiple times per day over several months to renounce too! So, if the 48 number doubled to 96, American unemployment figures would be nixed, with millions of Americans finally being able to work in order to process the renunciation application for 96 Americans around the world!
the Swedish embassy streamlined the process a couple weeks ago—-Went from 2 appointments down to one
@swisspinoy, Mark Twain
LOL!
The article is linked on the Drudge Report which explains the large number of US-based comments.
I mailed the Telegraph reporter who wrote this directly, mentioning that fear of being locked entirely out of financial services in the UK due to FATCA, rather than recent US tax rises, was probably the larger driver of dual US/UK citizens renouncing their US. I also suggested he might think about a follow-up article covering the way that the IGA is one-sided, overrides UK sovereignty, damages British interests, and could bankrupt some duals living in the UK.
No idea if this will go anywhere, but it seems worth a shot.
@Swisspony–the sequester could have disastrous effects. After the cuts, its likley they won’t be able to handle 5 renunciations this year.
@swisspinoy, re;”with the 48 or so listed on the Federal Register, the 5 or so who renounced in the UK must have been causing a whole lot of trouble, coming back multiple times over several months, creating the need for the US Embassy in London to train many more officers to deal with them!”…
My thoughts exactly!
And if those 5 in the UK created such a heavy administrative burden, what about those many more renouncing in Canada? Maybe they will have to form mobile squads of renunciation-trained consular officials who fly from location to location internationally – depending on which nation has the longest lineup of UScitizen duals causing a ruckus. The extortionate 450. fee could certainly help to pay for the flights.
@Mark Twain, they’ll increase fees and taxes on expats to finance renunciation processing
Here’s an interesting comment by one called: “TeaPartyPatriotTD”
@Mark Twain; “the sequester could have disastrous effects. After the cuts, its likley they won’t be able to handle 5 renunciations this year.”
Actually, though tongue in cheek, I am worried that there might actually be cuts that decrease the numbers of appointments being processed.
On the other hand, maybe they would organize mass renunciations as in the one reported on earlier in IBS history, based on the Globe story:
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/americans-in-canada-driven-to-divorce-from-their-country/article4179937/
“…….A U.S. embassy official played down the significance of the renunciation meeting. He said consular officials were responding to calls and requests for information prompted by a flurry of media coverage about the tax crackdown.
“We simply decided it was more efficient to have everybody come as a group and talk to everyone at once, rather than doing it individually,” the official said. “It was simply a time-management decision.”
No further meetings are planned, but more could take place, depending on demand across the country, the official said.”….. from; ‘Americans in Canada driven to divorce from their country’ by BARRIE McKENNA, The Globe and Mail published Tuesday, Nov. 08 2011
Canada Free Press: “Britain no place for Americans to run to”
IMHO, the writer deserves some comments. She is partially on the right track, but could use some first-hand input from “Anti-Form and Penalty Club” members.
http://www.canadafreepress.com/index.php/article/53499
From the article:
“Lawyers claiming that huge numbers of Americans are renouncing citizenship to become British thanks to tax rise are having us on.”
“Advocates of the American- Fleeing-to-Britain-in-Great-Numbers theory must think that all Americans belong in the newly-minted “low information American” category.”
“But even the lowest informed among the so called ‘low information” Americans know that modern day Britain is no where to run.”
“The harsh reality is that Death by Double Taxation is the fate of Americans renouncing their citizenship to the Brits.”
“The US tax return process requires all Americans to pay tax on their total income regardless of where they live. In other words, even if a US citizen earns all their income in high tax-Britain, they are liable for tax in their home country.”
“Human memory, which sometimes does not even recollect just yesterday, may not immediately recall that it was the incessant and nauseating British taxes on America that saw America the Beautiful take birth in the first place.”
“The Founding Fathers were right to boot the redcoats out of their land and lovers of unrevised history know there is no going back.”
“The biggest problem for finding freedom today is that there is nowhere to run.”
I’d just like to say how much I admire TeaPartyPatriotTD’s carefully considered and balanced opinion. TPPTD and like-minded friends (no doubt they are numerous) make a tremendous contribution to the global attitude to the US and it’s reputation for fairness and unbiased attitudes.
@p33t
One can’t help having a great deal of adoration for a person whose loyalties lie with a country that has spent his future and the future of his children on such noble causes endless wars in what he calls crap holes.
yeah, that’s where the Cuts will show up. And the taxpayer advocate. Places where they are losing Money. And their objective is to make as many scary and visible Cuts as possible (for example, they cancelled all of the Thunderbirds shows).
It is scary.
Maybe they will Think twice—at $450 a pop we know they are turning a good profit.
or, alternatively, since screwing US Citizens overseas is covered up, it may not do any good to threaten the secret services that are there to screw us the most.