Amid IRS Abuse, Record Number of Americans Give Up U.S. Citizenship http://t.co/OH7V8SkhRB – Who could have known?
— U.S. Citizen Abroad (@USCitizenAbroad) December 12, 2013
This is a great post about Americans renouncing citizenship which cites a number of interesting sources.
McClatchy news highlighted the plight of Oklahoma-born Ruth Anne Freeborn, who has lived in Canada with her Canadian husband and son for over three decades. Because of FATCA, her foreign bank was required to hand over all of her family’s financial information to the Obama administration, which her husband, of course, opposed. So, after carefully considering her options, Freeborn eventually decided to renounce her U.S. citizenship in September rather than subject her family to intrusive prying by the IRS and the federal government.
“My decision was either to protect my Canadian spouse and child from this overreach or I could relinquish my U.S. citizenship,” she told the news service, which reported that growing numbers of Americans were “ditching their U.S. passports out of frustration and fear” over FATCA. “It was with great sorrow I felt I had to relinquish, but there was no other choice for me and many like me…. My husband cannot understand why Americans are so offended by having their personal emails and phone calls monitored by the NSA yet are very comfortable requiring a Canadian to hand over their bank account data.”
The increasingly byzantine and oppressive regulations, along with more aggressive government efforts to enforce them, have also led a growing number of banks and financial institutions around the world to refuse to do business with anyone subject to Uncle Sam. As The New American has been reporting for years, Congress and the IRS have essentially made U.S. citizens into pariahs around the world in many respects. In some cases, the U.S. government has even gone so far as to terrorize and threaten governments and nations that refuse to bow to the will of Washington’s political class. Switzerland and the Swiss were among the most recent victims.
For Americans living overseas, it is becoming increasingly nightmarish. “Many banks, foreign financial institutions, are just turning Americans away — it’s easier for them not to have American clients,” explained Marylouise Serrato, executive director of the group American Citizens Abroad, in comments about the effect of FATCA and IRS regulations. “For some people it [renunciation] becomes a solution. But it’s done with a very heavy heart.”
This of course makes one wonder:
Why is the United States so cruel to U.S. citizens abroad?
