The folks over at the Federal Register have put the “Internal” Revenue Service’s Q3 2016 Quarterly Publication of Individuals Who Have Chosen to Expatriate up for public inspection. I count 1,379 names of newly-minted ex-U.S. citizens in this list, making it the second-largest list ever published (beaten only by the Q3 2015 list, which had 1,426 names).
The list is scheduled for official publication on 10 November, eleven days later than the 30-day deadline specified by 26 USC § 6039G(d). Obama’s Treasury Secretaries have only managed to meet the list’s deadline eight times out of 31 during his term as president (three so far for Jack Lew, and five for Tim Geithner, assuming we count the late Q4 2012 list as being his fault). However, Bush’s appointees didn’t have a much better track record: Hank Paulson only published one list on time during eleven quarters, while John Snow holds the all-time delay record of 516 days for the Q3 2005 list.
Who are the people in this list?
The latest list was published just after the news broke that Donald Trump won the U.S. presidential election, but contrary to media hype, there’s very little connection between that news and people who choose to give up U.S. citizenship. After every U.S. election you can find all sorts of hysterical Internet surfers claiming they want to renounce their citizenship and flee the new regime, but for the most part these aren’t the people who actually move abroad, let alone go to a U.S. consulate and pay $2,350 for State Department bureaucrats to push renunciation papers around.
First and foremost, all of the people in the Federal Register list already live in other countries, and have been living there since long before the election. This latest list includes people who are known from media reports to have given up U.S. citizenship as recently as July, though most probably made their final visit to the U.S. consulate late last year or early this year.
Some were self-identifying Americans abroad who saw cutting off their legal ties to Washington, DC (and its coterie of self-serving revolving-door bureaucrats who pretend they don’t know that they’re ruining our lives) as the only way to survive all the damage that previous presidents and Congresses inflicted on the diaspora. They’d reached their breaking points long before anyone knew who’d even be on the ballot in November, let alone how long it would take the next administration to follow through on its promises to make things right.
Others considered themselves primarily as citizens of other countries, and saw U.S. citizenship as a barrier to their lives in the country they considered home. They didn’t have any stake in who’d be U.S. president — but instead of making it easy for these de facto non-Americans to become de jure non-Americans, the U.S. government put all sorts of unnecessary barriers in their way, turning what should have been an amicable split into a bureaucratic nightmare.
Why isn’t my name in there?
In addition to being late, the Federal Register list is widely recognised as being incomplete too. Aside from the IRS, the FBI also maintains a list of renunciants in the National Instant Criminal Background Check System gun control database (NICS), in order to enforce provisions of federal law (18 USC 922(g)(7)) barring renunciants from purchasing firearms. They don’t make the names public, but each month they publish a report on the size of the database; according to those reports, the FBI added 4,240 renunciant records from the beginning of this year until 30 September (growing from 32,666 to 36,906).
In contrast, the Federal Register only gave us 3,046 renunciants and relinquishers over the same period (509 last quarter, and 1,158 in Q1). And that’s not even mentioning the tens of thousands of people who abandon green cards each year, whom the Federal Register list misleadingly implies are included as well (“[f]or purposes of this listing, long-term residents, as defined in section 877(e)(2), are treated as if they were citizens of the United States who lost citizenship”).
As always, after the jump please find an updated table of people who are known from media reports to have given up U.S. citizenship recently, including whether or not their names have appeared in the Federal Register.
Media reports
| Name | Occupation | Other citizenship |
Giving up US citizenship | Appeared in Federal Register? |
Source | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Reason | Date | |||||
| LU Shu-hao | Military | Taiwan | Service in Republic of China Army | January 2014 or earlier | No | Taipei Times |
| Sandy OPRAVIL | Housewife | Switzerland | Save her mortgage | February 2014 | Q3 2014 | Newsweek |
| Roger VER | Bitcoin investor | St. Kitts & Nevis | Libertarian political opinions | February 2014 | No | Bloomberg |
| Sophia MARTELLY | Politician | Haiti | Run for Senate of Haiti | March 2014 | Q3 2015 | Haiti Press Network |
| Ya’aqov BEN-YEHUDAH | Writer | Israel | Complicated; see source | March 2014 | Q2 2014 | Times of Israel |
| Sean CAVANAUGH | Technology | Canada | FATCA | April 2014 | Q1 2015 | Tweeted own CLN in August 2014 |
| Mona QUARTEY | Politician | Ghana | Become Deputy Finance Minister of Ghana | July 2014 | No | Graphic News (Ghana) |
| Alex KIM | Singer | South Korea | Obtain South Korean citizenship & serve in military | August 2014 | Q1 2016 | Herald Business (South Korea) |
| Nicole BEAUDOIN | Unknown | Canada | FATCA | September 2014 | Q3 2014 | La Presse (Canada) |
| KIM Sungkyum | Military | South Korea | Be commissioned an officer in the Republic of Korea Army | December 2014 | Q1 2015 | Kookbang Ilbo (South Korea) |
| LIN Jou-min | Architect | Taiwan | Take position in Taipei city government | December 2014 | Q3 2015 | Central News Agency (Taiwan) |
| Rachel AZARIA | Politician | Israel | Take office as Member of Knesset | January 2015 | Q2 2016 | Times of Israel |
| Jonathan TEPPER | Macroeconomic analyst | United Kingdom | FATCA & other U.S. tax reporting requirements | January 2015 | Q1 2016 | The New York Times |
| David ALWARD | Politician | Canada | Become Canadian consul-general in Boston | April 2015 or earlier | Q3 2015 | Canadian Broadcasting Corporation |
| Alfred Oko VANDERPUIJE | Politician | Ghana | Stand for election to Parliament | August 2015 | No | Starr FM (Ghana) |
| Philip RYU | Singer | South Korea | Serve in South Korean army | September 2015 or earlier | No | Money Today (South Korea) |
| Rachel HELLER | Writer | Netherlands | FATCA & other U.S. tax reporting requirements even when no U.S. tax is owed | November 2015 | No | Blog (will be included in TV news programme at a later date) |
| KANG Dong-suk | Violinist | South Korea | Restore South Korean citizenship | 2015 (month not specified) | No | News1 (South Korea) |
| Neil (Teodoro) LLAMANZARES | Businessman | Philippines | Public opinion (his wife ran for President, but lost after he renounced) | April 2016 | Q3 2016 | Rappler (Philippines) |
| LEE Chih-kung | Physicist | Taiwan | Appointed Minister of Economic Affairs by President-elect Tsai Ing-wen | May 2016 | Q3 2016 | Apple Daily (Taiwan) |
| Ned MANNOUN | Politician | Australia | Run for Australian parliament | May 2016 or earlier | No | Liverpool Champion (Australia) |
| Yehuda GLICK | Politician | Israel | Take office as Member of Knesset | May 2016 | No | Arutz Sheva (Israel) |
| Judy CHAN Ka-pui | Politician | Hong Kong | Run for Hong Kong Legislative Council | July 2016 | Q3 2016 | Apple Daily (Hong Kong) |
| Kimi ONODA | Politician | Japan | Dual-at-birth, did Japanese-law “choice of nationality” long ago, didn’t know U.S. still considered her a citizen | October 2016? | No | Viewpoint (Japan) |
Regarding the newest addition to the table: Japan, like Jamaica and Pakistan before it, is in the middle of a scandal about lawmakers holding dual citizenship, and so various politicians have been rushing to renounce their other citizenships. Onoda, who was born in Chicago, issued a statement in early October that she is currently undergoing procedures to give up U.S. citizenship according to U.S. law, but didn’t say whether she’d actually made her final visit to the U.S. consulate to sign the paperwork. I do not know whether she will be swearing an oath of renunciation or trying to claim relinquishment under 8 USC § 1481(a)(4).
If you know of any other recent media reports which have interviewed people giving up U.S. citizenship, for whatever reason, leave a comment and I’ll add them to the table.
Only one item of media coverage so far (Rudy Takala at the Washington Examiner)
http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/feds-american-expatriations-near-4th-annual-record/article/2606992
Generally he makes good points, e.g.
Though he mixes that with one item of mathematically-impossible nonsense:
@Eric
I so appreciate your keeping us up to date on the list; especially the NICs list.
Wow, $9 million from processing forms. What a joke. Freedome at any price, eh?
From Wikipedia etc.:
The Expatriation Act of 1868 was an act of the 40th United States Congress regarding the right to renounce one’s citizenship. It states that “the right of expatriation is a natural and inherent right of all people” and “that any declaration, instruction, opinion, order, or decision of any officers of this government which restricts, impairs, or questions the right of expatriation, is hereby declared inconsistent with the fundamental principles of this government”.
Thanks for your diligence in keeping us informed on the renunciation statistics. I hope that the new Republican government-elect will soon give us reason to hope that these numbers will drop in the future.
I have finally made the list! It only took (9) months. Where do they get their information? I thought the names listed were supposed to be individuals who had renounced in the quarter being reported.
My daughter renounced at the beginning of June and her name does not appear in either the Q2 or Q3 list for this year.
My son and I now both have appointments for next year. The idea of a (possible) Clinton presidency or a (real) Trump presidency fills me with dread, and if nothing else is proof to me that truth is stranger than fiction and I and he are better off eliminating what is no longer a benefit to us in any way. My kids have never lived in the U.S. and it’s been a long time since the country resembled the one I left 25 years ago. For a long time now I’ve been thinking “Not My Country”, rather than “Not My President”.
Rebecca. Would you mind telling how long you waited to get an appointment?
We applied the first week of Sept. and have heard nothing since. Of course there is no way to ask THEM.
We are just concerned the application disappeared into a black hole. 9 weeks to arrange a simple appointment is outrageous. Thanks.
Thank you for the list. Much appreciate. I renounced this quarter and searched for my name, but it is not on the list. Strangely there is someone on the list that has a similar name to me but definitely not me, different middle name but same first name and eerily similar surname but not quite the same.
I don’t think these lists reflect the people who expatriated in that specific quarter. there must be a backlog of getting the information and getting on the list.
Portland, sit tight and be patient : ) .
I was just about ready to re-send the request for my son — like you, thinking we had sent it into a black hole — when it arrived. We sent his in early June, received the reply last week. For me, I sent the request in early May and got the email in early September. The wait times are crazy. I suspect they hope some people will simply give up.
For the same reason, I think they delay the names for the Federal Register list, holding them off for the next (or next next…) quarter hoping that the tide will slow. And yet it seems to be steady. Go figure!
It seems the Quarterly List serves no purpose. Which probably means no one (official) cares if it’s late, or wrong, or incomplete.
I find it very suspicious that this Congressional Research Service report below doesn’t acknowledge the significant funds the State Dept. is reaping from the extortionate 2350. USD fee for now BOTH relinquishing as well as renouncing, the contentious size of the fee increase (making the fee effectively a potentially unconstitutional barrier to expatriation) and the extension of it to the formerly free relinquishments, along with the longer and longer wait times and growing backlogs of those waiting for their expatriation appointments, and waiting for their CLNs.
I found this Congressional Research report recently;
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services
(USCIS) Functions and Funding
William A. Kandel
Analyst in Immigration Policy
May 15, 2015
http://fas.org/sgp/crs/homesec/R44038.pdf
As far as I can see, the fees (contentious and exponentially increased) for renouncing and now for relinquishing are not mentioned at all, though the fee increases and history of other State dept. functions are. Nor does the report even acknowledge the processing of renunciations and relinquishments as UCIS functions, and nor does it cite this function as currently contentious. This function is not referred to or flagged in any way in the report.
Interesting and telling omission?
Other CRS reports here
http://fas.org/sgp/crs/homesec/
Rebecca Thank you . So it was 4-5 months to get a reply. If you don’t mind, how much longer for the appointment itself?
Sorry, Portland, I meant to include that information, as well as the fact that both of our appointments are in Calgary. My appt is for the end of April, and my son’s is for the end of June. So pretty much one year in total, from the time one sends in the request to the appointment. Yikes.
Andrew Mitchel’s post (he again points out that the FR numbers are incompatible with the NICS renunciation + USCIS green card abandonment numbers)
http://intltax.typepad.com/intltax_blog/2016/11/2016-third-quarter-published-expatriates-second-highest-ever.html
Picked up by Paul Caron over at TaxProf Blog (who does not quote that part of Mitchel’s post)
http://taxprof.typepad.com/taxprof_blog/2016/11/number-of-americans-renouncing-their-us-citizenship-last-quarter-was-second-highest-in-history.html
Seems everyone else is getting 1380 instead of 1379 published expatriates this quarter. I must have missed one somewhere (maybe two entries got collapsed into one when I copied the pre-print to a spreadsheet?)
Perhaps a good place to put this, not really relevant except this song, one of my favourites, the spirit of what we we are fighting for, might resonate with others.
Leonard Cohen, September 21, 1934 – November 10, 2016
Thank you for that Calgary. I’d forgotten that song. Sad day.
Peter Spiro tweets Andrew Mitchel’s post, and asks: “US citizens renouncing at near-record pace. Will number balloon for political as well as tax reasons?”
https://twitter.com/AfterTheState/status/796762297846919168
I seriously doubt this. People officially renouncing to express distaste for a particular government will always be a tiny minority. Wrong level on Maslow’s Hierarchy. Emigrants give up citizenship (whether that be US citizenship, South Korean citizenship, Pakistani citizenship, or whatever) so they can get on with their lives in the country where they live: get local citizenship in a country that doesn’t allow dual citizenship, apply for a job that needs a local-government security clearance, get a mortgage without being buried under paperwork & phantom gains, etc.
People who don’t need official renunciation paperwork (e.g. because no one knows about their other citizenship in the first place, or because it isn’t required for their job) will rarely go to all the trouble. Least of all when it has a giant $2350 price tag attached to it.
@Eric, You can add another person to the table: Pedro Pablo Kuczynski, the current president of Peru, renounced US citizenship in November 2015, before his election in April-June 2016. He even released his renunciation forms and later his CLN to the media. He was born in Peru and had become a US citizen by naturalization in 1999. His name hasn’t appeared in the Federal Register yet.
Boris Johnson, the former mayor of London and current Foreign Secretary of the UK, seems to have finally renounced US citizenship around March 2016. This news article from July 2016 reports that “A Foreign Office spokesman confirmed that the Foreign Secretary was no longer an American citizen.” If you think that this information is reliable, you can also add him to the table. His name hasn’t appeared in the Federal Register yet either.
Thanks for that @Calgary
@shadow radar: it is now widely reported that Jeb Hensarling is being strongly considered for US Treasury Secretary. I note that you had a meeting with his office some time ago (uh, maybe a good time for you to renew that contact…)
Shadow Raider says
June 24, 2013 at 9:29 pm
Today I went to DC again, same building as last time. I met with Aaron Krejci, assistant of representative Jeb Hensarling (R-TX), who is the chairman of the Financial Services Committee. He had never heard of FBAR, FATCA, OVDP etc., and he didn’t ask questions, but paid attention and took many notes. He said that he understood the problem and that he will talk to members of the committee (he said members in the plural). He agreed that the FBAR penalties are not right. He thanked me for explaining the issue because that’s how they find out about things like this. He also asked me to send him my presentation and the reports from the National Taxpayer Advocate (finally someone in Congress will read it!) and from the Government Accountability Office.
Although he didn’t know anything about the subject before the meeting, I got the impression that he is more powerful than the other assistants I met, so maybe now someone will finally do something. I’ll keep in touch with him to see what happens.
@Calgary411 Thank you so much for that Cohen song. I did not know that one … but it is beautiful. My memories of Cohen’s music go back to the days of Suzanne.
I renounced in May, and my name is not on this list.
Good to see you still keeping us with us @Shadow Raider!
“Suzanne” is a favourite of mine for obvious reasons. Been trying to live up to the “half crazy” characterization my entire life. Noel Harrison’s version was the first I became familiar with,
@Eric
Thanks for the post. Renunciations should only increase with Trump as president, based on the great impression he’s made around the world. I don’t think many of these folks are interested in turning over rocks looking for excuses to stay – including any Republican platform promises. They just want out, and ASAP.
“Renunciations should only increase with Trump as president, based on the great impression he’s made around the world. I don’t think many of these folks are interested in turning over rocks looking for excuses to stay – including any Republican platform promises. They just want out, and ASAP.”
As others have said on the election thread the other day, there is nothing any U.S. politician could ever do or say to ensure my trust in their word or their system, especially after what the Democrats did in 2010 and the recent campaign and election. “Out” for my family and me is the only safe, certain, and sane option. For that, US $2,350 is a bargain.