Denise Rich gives up US citizenship

umm.. Nowhere did I say she should be given easier treatment than any other non-citizen. I'm saying treat her like anybody else who is looking to travel here.

YOU'RE the one saying she should be singled out for harsher-than-normal treatment, which would be harassment.

 

I think you're confusing me with Devil, that was my first post on the topic. But it's pretty standard State Department protocol to cast a suspicious eye on anyone who renounces their citizenship. And traveling for non-citizens has gotten to be quite difficult in the new world.

But at least she isn't trying to be a legal citizen and vote, or drive down the street in Arizona, or something crazy like that.

 

As a dual citizen who lives abroad and wants to be able to visit the U.S. at my leisure, I am obliged to file U.S. tax returns each year.

Fortunately, I never have to pay anything to Uncle Sam because Canadian tax rates are higher and I also don't have any property or investments in the U.S. I just have to be current with filing my returns.

 

I'm an expat too. The figure above which you get taxed in the US for foreign earnings is $95,100. Or you can claim a dollar-for-dollar credit on what you pay in your country of residence. And Britain isn't a particularly low tax paradise.

Another important thing to remember is that only a tiny, tiny sliver of expats are giving up their citizenships for any reason at all. Numbers are really hard to come by but the State Department estimates that there are 6.6 million Americans living abroad. And in 2010, only around 1800 of them went down to their local embassy/consulate and renounced their citizenship. (Interestingly enough. Boris Johnson, the current mayor of London gave up his before taking office. He was born in New York while his British parents were teaching at NYU.)

So yeah, an unknown handful of rich people are renouncing their birthright to save some cash. Boo hoo. It is a hassle to have to file every year but if you're going to be tacky, at least scrounge around for a better rationale.

 

No. To be honest, that's the glaring weakness in my argument. I've never had anything resembling $10,000 in my bank account over here, and I've never come remotely close to paying US tax while abroad. So, it's pretty darn easy for me to sound off as Mr. I-Love-America. It's no skin off my nose.

Still, to give up your citizenship over FBAR and the filing requirements seems misguided at best. Rules change. If the IRS mends its ways a decade from now, is the money you saved really worth it? And will the freedom-loving bureaucrats of the EU never got it into their heads to impose similiar disclosure laws?

Give up your citizenship because you've lived in Spain or Japan for decades and that's your home now. Give it up because the Supreme Court upheld the ACA. But really, don't cheapen what it means to be American by reducing it down to a matter of dollars and cents.

 

FBAR has been around a long time. Has post-9/11 enforcement made it more onerous?

 

Thanks for the reminder. I'd never heard of any of this until I had to edit a 3,000-word special report from Reuters on just such an issue. Guess it's time to make a few strategic bank transfers.

Did you know you can naturalize as a Belgian after just three years? Apparently it takes five in New Zealand, although you only have to be in the country for a little more than nine months out of the year.

 

As you probably know, it has made Belgian football clubs a popular place for European teams to send players on loan for a few years, to get around work permit issues.