Congress is considering new sanctions against Americans who renounce their U.S. citizenship to avoid paying taxes.
The legislation in the U.S. Senate is aimed at wealthy businessmen and investors who use citizenship renunciation to protect their fortunes.
Grammy-nominated songwriter Denise Rich gave lawmakers new incentives to pass legislation this month when she gave up her U.S. citizenship and moved to London. She also holds Austrian citizenship.
Rich, 68, is the ex-wife of billionaire Wall Street investor Marc Rich, who was pardoned by President Bill Clinton after fleeing to Switzerland to avoid prosecution for tax evasion and profiteering allegations. She has written songs for Mary J. Blige, Aretha Franklin, Jessica Simpson and Mandy Moore.
Denise Rich's renunciation comes after Facebook co-founder Eduardo Saverin gave up his U.S. citizenship and moved to Singapore earlier this year. Saverin saved millions in U.S. taxes when Facebook became a public company.
Sens. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and Bob Casey, D-Pa., are sponsoring the Expatriation Prevention by Abolishing Tax-Related Incentives for Offshore Tenancy Act. The bill would eliminate the tax advantages to renouncing U.S. citizenship and also impose a 30% capital gains tax on those who give it up.
Some members of Congress support even stronger sanctions, including prohibiting those who renounce their citizenship from re-entering the country again.
Comments
Maybe they should think about joining the 21st century. The United States is the only country in the civilized world that taxes people based on citizenship and not residency.
US Congress is chasing American expats away with citizenship based taxation and reporting requirements from hell. American Expats, most of whom are regular Joes, are rapidly pulling the plug on US citizenship.
Who can blame them? The only other country that harasses its citizens abroad for taxes is Eritrea, which was recently condemned by the UN for doing so.
Renunciations of US citizenship are on the rise and will continue to increase unless citizenship based taxation and the crazy reporting requirements that comes with it is abolished.
Here’s an idea! The Army Corps of Engineers could hire a Russian subcontractor to build a concrete wall around the United States and make everyone a prisoner. Then Congress could charge an exit fee from everyone who wants to escape the IRS and Obamacare. They’ll make millions!!!
America is the only country which taxes its citizens when they reside overseas (in addition to whatever taxes they face locally). This has made life miserable for millions of Americans overseas who are mostly just regular people with ordinary jobs, unlike the Saverins and Richs who get the headlines and make uninformed Congress members angry. They can’t even get a bank account overseas because banks overseas don’t want to deal with the added paperwork burden. Abolish citizenship based taxation now and bring America into the 21st century – and no American will consider renouncing again.
My grandparents fled the Nazis to come here. Now, I the US government is sounding just like them. Carl Levin, Chuck Schumer and the like – of both parties – are sounding very familiar. Now I know why we are the hosts for the UN building. The US government fits in just fine with the human rights abusers in Africa, and the Middle East. It’s laughable that we judge them in any way. Obvioulsy, the US government and these imbeciles hate the people of the US. They want to rob us as gunpoint too. Now the US government wants to hold people hostage. So, instead of an Iranian hostage crisis, there is an American one.
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