Why Americans Renounce Their Citizenship
As previously reported (and here) on ImmigrationProf, increasing numbers of U.S. citizens have been relinquishing their citizenship, including some well-known Americans. In 2012, Facebook co-founder Eduardo Saverin renounced his citizenship. In 2013, singer Tina Turner did the same.
Serena Solomon on VICE looks at why Americans renounce their US citizenship. The State Department does not keep statistics on why citizens renounce. Some say they do it for political reasons or because they cannot maintain dual citizenship. SKL Tax, a US and Canadian tax consultancy firm based in Vancouver, has received about a dozen renunciation inquiries this year with mention of Donald Trump, according to one of the firm’s cross-border tax lawyers.
But many Americans renounce their citizenship because of the country’s rare citizenship-based taxation laws, which require US citizens abroad to file highly complicated annual tax returns and sometimes even pay taxes to the IRS. They must also pay taxes to their country of residence, whose roads and hospitals they use. The only other country to tax its citizens abroad is Eritrea.
KJ