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Is It Time To Renounce U.S. Citizenship While You Still Can?
Submitted by Nick Giambruno via InternationalMan.com,
The number of people abandoning the “greatest country in the world” just hit a record high…
The U.S. government recently reported that 1,426 people renounced their U.S. citizenship in the third quarter. That’s a record quarterly high. Like all government statistics, I view this one skeptically. Many observers think the actual number is much higher.
Still, with another quarter left in 2015, the number of Americans who renounce U.S. citizenship this year could easily top the previous annual record set last year.
I recently spoke with a consultant who gave up his U.S. citizenship. He’s now a citizen of Dominica, a small Caribbean country, and splits his time between Asia and South America.
He said he was leaving a sinking ship for a better life elsewhere. On top of that, the U.S. government is placing an increasing number of hurdles on Americans who want to renounce their citizenship. So he thought it was time to do just that.
This isn’t how the average person sees things. Unthinking Americans are puzzled when they read about the increasing number of people renouncing their citizenship.
As you can see in the chart below, this trend is exploding. And it has important implications for your personal freedom and financial prosperity.
This trend really shouldn’t surprise anyone. The U.S. tax system is the most rapacious in the world. It’s also the most aggressively enforced. For many, the benefits of U.S. citizenship no longer outweigh the costs.
The U.S. is the only country in the world that successfully taxes its citizens no matter where they are in the world…even if they leave and never step foot in the country again. It’s called citizenship-based taxation.
If you’re a U.S. citizen, you should think of citizenship-based taxation as a ball and chain attached to your leg.
Nearly every other country in the world taxes people based on residency, not citizenship. For example, if you’re a Canadian citizen and leave Canada to live in Dubai, the Canadian government won’t force you to pay taxes on the income you earn in Dubai. However, if you’re a U.S. citizen, you have to pay taxes to the U.S. government no matter where you live and work.
Only one other country in the entire world, Eritrea, has citizenship-based taxation.
Eritrea is a tiny, mostly unknown, country in East Africa. It levies a 2% flat tax on the income of Eritrean citizens who live abroad. Unlike the U.S., Eritrea is an impoverished country. Its government has a hard time enforcing its tax system within its own borders, let alone the rest of the world. Many Eritreans who live abroad have never even heard of this tax, and those who have don’t worry too much about paying it.
The U.S., on the other hand, does have the ability to enforce its Byzantine tax system literally anywhere in the world. When you consider the reach of the U.S. government and the penalties for not paying (which can only be described as cruel and unusual), it’s no surprise Americans are terrified. And they should be… or they aren’t paying attention.
The U.S. government threatens Americans with years in prison and outrageous fines if they don’t file a litany of complex forms correctly… even if they don’t owe taxes in the first place. U.S. citizens are in the uniquely unfavorable position of having the world’s worst tax policies and a government that relentlessly enforces them everywhere on the planet.
For many, it’s a tight and suffocating tax leash. Renouncing your U.S. citizenship is the only way to free yourself from U.S. taxation while you’re still breathing. It’s only logical that an increasing number of people are taking this step.
UN Resolution 2023
The media routinely condemns Eritrea for its attempts to tax nonresident citizens. Even the United Nations has weighed in. In Resolution 2023, the UN Security Council condemned Eritrea for “using extortion, threats of violence, fraud and other illicit means to collect taxes outside of Eritrea from its nationals.”
The U.S. government supported Resolution 2023, even though it does the very same thing on an industrial scale.
When you think about, it’s actually not fair to compare an impotent country like Eritrea and its relatively modest 2% expat tax to the monstrous U.S. tax system.
Of course, I’m not endorsing the UN. I dislike bureaucracies of any sort…especially ones with a global reach. But it’s noteworthy that they would even bother to weigh in on the repressive practice of citizenship-based taxation.
Unfortunately, the UN is being opportunistic. They don’t care about the tax burdens of Eritreans. If they did, they’d condemn citizenship-based taxation consistently.
But the UN hasn’t made so much as a peep about the U.S.’s racket. If you listen for it, you’ll only hear the crickets chirping.
This isn’t surprising. Even though it’s clearly a double standard, it’s easy to understand why it exists. As the world’s sole superpower and issuer of the premier reserve currency, the U.S. isn’t accountable to anyone.
No other country has the courage or incentive to call the U.S. out. It’s a heck of a lot easier to push around some small, impoverished African country than it is to stand up to the U.S. juggernaut.
The Exit Tax - A Form of People Controls
Desperate governments always try to control money with capital controls and individuals with people controls.
Take Cuba, for example. After Castro came to power, his government made Cuban citizens apply for exit visas before they left the island. They were not easy to get. The Soviet Union, North Korea, and others have also used similar restrictions.
Preventing people from leaving has always been a hallmark of authoritarianism.
It’s hardly shocking that productive people are fleeing the U.S. tax system. The U.S. government doesn’t like this one bit. Naturally, it would prefer to squeeze every last drop out of its best milk cows.
To keep them from leaving, the U.S. government has imposed a so-called Exit Tax on Americans who renounce their citizenship.
Eduardo Saverin, the billionaire cofounder of Facebook, is a notable example. By renouncing his U.S. citizenship, Saverin escaped paying an estimated $700 million plus in future income and estate taxes. He could not, however, escape the Exit Tax.
For the Exit Tax, the U.S. government deems you to have sold everything you own on the day before you renounce citizenship at a price equal to its “fair market value.” Any appreciation in your investments or home and any deferred income becomes taxable.
The Exit Tax is a big impediment to leaving. But, as the growing number of Americans renouncing their citizenship shows, it’s not always an effective one. I expect the U.S. government to impose much harsher restrictions - more people controls - in the future.
The Canary in the Coal Mine
I think the growing number of Americans renouncing their citizenship is an important sign of what’s to come. It’s never a good thing when a society’s most productive members flee for greener pastures.
Many of these former Americans grew tired of the government treating them as piggy banks for the social program du jour.
Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, and the entire U.S. government are broken and bleeding money. Like most governments that get into financial trouble, I think American politicians will keep choosing the easy option…money printing on a massive scale. This has tremendous implications for your financial security.
Politicians are playing with fire and inviting a currency catastrophe. Most people have no idea what really happens when a currency collapses, let alone how to prepare…
How will you protect your savings in the event of a currency crisis? This just-released video will show you exactly how. Click here to watch it now.
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I've lived and worked in four continents. If you're US born then renouncing your citizenship would probably be a scary proposition, but moving to another country and spending some time there is always a positive experience even if it's fucking scary sometimes too. As you get older it's way too easy to stop learning and living in a new environment is a very effective way to force your brain to keep moving.
Travel is education, ethno-centrism is schooling.
Well said, mijev.
Thanks. I say a lot of stupid shit too, mostly depending on how much booze I've consumed.
You were 'just right', tonight.
I'm in SE asia right now and it's just after lunchtime. I'll save the really stupid shit for later when I go to the local bar and watch a game. :)
Cricket?
Hockey?
I thnk it's soccer/football and darts tonight. Something to look at while I'm not staring at the waitresses' asses.
Accurate. My children are half Russian and what the fuck is it that I am not seeing? Fine....take me if that is what you need to do. Killl me then if you think you can but do not fuck with my children or wife. Leave them alone. I will go.
I will not renounce my citizenship. Not going to happen. I looked at my departed Dad's shadow box and dogtags today and thought to myself that he would not be very proud of me if I gave up. I want to fix this central bank mess but I don't think I can. How could I really do that? I can't.
Here is to everyone who has lost a family member in some pointless war. Peace my friends.
You could stop using banks, and use local credit unions instead... and convince 350M of your friends to do the same. There's a market with some upside.
We could always go see what they're doing in Iceland.
Or use silver and forget the partial denim paper bullshit. It could be that way but it obviously isn't right now. I guess I am just a barberous relic that is holding on to the future. I did not think that I was that old but I guess I am. In the end we shall see what the deal really is because we all know the eventual outcome. There will be an end to fluff and a return to sound money. It must be so.
Bulgaria. That's where it's at, man. A fucking Disneyland, that place.
Rivers of flowing wine. Supermodels on every corner. Everyones a fucking genius.
Goddamned Valhalla.
A lot of the people who renounced did it because of fatca, the worst Act ever.
Yes but I believe that the tax angle has been over-played in USA media. Most Americanos are leaving as they expect very hard times ahead, and they don't want to be there during the rioting They want to be TOTALLY FREE.
I can only say that if you renounce your citizenship you are clearly not thinking clearly.
Think about it. You have now made a decision to not be an American.
OK. Now you have made it.
Why the fuck do you need the US cocksucking govts permission when in your mind you are no longer a US citizen.
Fuck that.
Simple way. Sell your assets and shift overseas. Even now it is easy to do. you simply make investments overseas and then book your icket for your choice of paradise.
Once there, apply for a passport else where if you really need to but its pretty easy to get permanent residence in any number of countries especially if you are retiring.
Once overseas, just ask around in the bars in the expat areas where the locals try to scam you and ask about for anyone wanting to buy a IS passport.
Sell passport, then write email from a brand new email account with no personal details attached unless you ad santa claus as the owner, to US Embassy telling them you have lost your passport but not to worry because you find the entire idea of going back to even visit that fucking shithole fills you horror and you have decided not to renew said passport and as you wont now have one therefore you are just confirming that you renounced your citizenship.
End of story.. No fatca, no fucking assholes trying to contact you, no fuck all. They have no fucking idea who you are or where you are.
Do not play their fucking moronic game by TELLING the fuckers you are going. Dimbest thing you could ever do and i suspect tens of thousands realize that and just vanish overseas.
Far far smarter in my view
Long kayaks.
spoken like a true chink.
spoken like a true chink
Silly cunt, have escaped your leash
Yeah thats it...
You lived your entire life in America, paid your taxes to the war machine... Voted or didn't vote that contributed to the malaise of this World through your government's "vascular hegemony" problem...
And now you want to live somewhere else for a fresh start so that you can forget the mess you created and left behind?...
Well. If you're already not a dual citizen of the U.K. and Israel my advice is you best be fluent and well versed in whatever new Country you plan to "land" in to the extent that you don't leave a trace... I've traveled to many different Countries and the only thing I can truly say that they admire about Americans is their wallet. And given who we are and what we've done and what we are now witnessing as our place in this World -it's completely justified... Isn't it?
Better let that last sentence sink in real good because if you thought it stopped at somebody calling you the "ugly American" behind your back being the worst it could get!...
Just do a dry run of anyplace in Western or Eastern Europe or Asia at this juncture and be honest with yourself whether you and your past will survive given what you've done... or didn't do!
Like it or not!!!
In the '30s, when the winds of fascism were whistling through Europe, those with foresight set their sights on USA....a bastion of democracy with wealth and opportunity to make the jump a good risk.
Where, we must now ask, is the equivalent for this decade? All those places which were paradise 10 or 15 years ago are not so much now....some are indeed hell (i.e. Venezuela). I have friends who fled to Argentina awhile back, have since fled back after suffering from heavy crime and inflation. I just don't see anyplace that promises stability and opportunity like USA did in the '30s. Singapore? not hardly, it is a dictatorship, and the climate can change at the drop of a hat. Sweden? Norway? They aren't anxious for us to show up, and seem to be having their own problems about now, getting worse. Switzerland? Not a chance....they are just germans with cheese breath, and really don't want us there. All them little islands in the carribean are dangerous and unstable.....only suitable for the uber wealthy who can lift anchor on their yacht and flee to the next island when trouble rears. Us poor-but-honest working class with reasonable retirement savings but less than $10M wealth have to look at the dull drudgery of picking up stakes and buying a home somewhere, which is digging in and commiting.
Gonna buy a greek island? Heading to Mars? Where is this golden land?
AC, Singapore's climate doesn't ever change. gets wet around this time of year and rains for an hour or two each day but every day is basically 85F and humid. The worst aspect of the climate is that when you go inside you will freeze in the air conditioning. The dictator thing isn't anywhere as bad as it sounds. It just means there isn't much crime. bad news is it's expensive to live there. Next door in Malaysia is much the same but about one quarter the cost. Probably better than Thailand or the Philippines because it's not quite so third world like.
In the caribbean, Curacao is nice if you like diving and it's outside the hurricane zone. Parts of the DR are nice but I don't have much experience with it. Colombia the people are very friendly and Medelin has a pretty nice climate. Their economy is good but it's still a bit third world. Uruguay is the same but less people. Europe I'm not sure about at the moment because of the refugee problems but Malta is cheap for Europe and nice weather most of the year.
Stay in the USA but move to some rural backwater where housing is cheap, everyone has guns, and multiculturalism is baseball vs. football. Settle as far north as your bones can stand and buy a big woodstove, because forty below keeps out the riffraff!
What is the difference between "Relinquishing" and "Renouncing".
I understand that even if you Renounce your US Citizenship you can still claim your Social Security!
Has for the gun issue, you can set up a "Gun Trust" which is a legal entity to hold your firearms.
(Time to feed the trolls).
Upon renouncing your US passport, one could always become a Russian Citizen:
http://eng.grajdanstva.net/ross-grazh
Women
Fastest way to beome Russian being to marry one of the fat, lazy, TV watching, poorly dressed femi-nazis...oops wrong country, I mean marry a woman who will probably be too good for you! http://matadornetwork.com/life/7-reasons-never-date-russian-woman/
Money
Russia has a flat tax of 10% I beleive and right now the country is on sale thanks to Obama & Co. The Ag industry is coming round and there are always ways to make money in Russia. HOWEVER YOU MUST LEARN THE LANGUAGE. Finding an instructor for one on one lessons is easy.
Guns
Also, Russians are allowed to have guns. Don't let the trolls tell you otherwise. In fact, their gun control makes sense - keep that shit away from crazy people on medication:
While self-defense and protection of property is a constitutional right guaranteed to Russian citizens, Russian legislation on gun control is relatively strict, limiting the circulation of firearms to Russian citizens older than eighteen years of age with a registered permanent residence, and for the purposes of self-defense, hunting, and sports activities only. The acquisition of guns is based on licenses provided for a five-year period by local police departments at one’s place of residence after a thorough background check, including a review of the petitioner’s ability to store guns safely and an evaluation of his/her medical records. Mentally ill people and those who have been treated for substance abuse are not allowed to possess firearms.
http://www.loc.gov/law/help/firearms-control/russia.php
Car
For a car I would suggest you go big style and shell out $12,000 USD (yes, $12K) for a Russian UAZ Sport Ute. Now remember, the Russians created the SUV so they know what they are doing. This one even comes with a South Korean Gearbox which historically has been the weak link for UAZ
http://www.uaz.ru/en/cars/patriot
Home
Need a place to live? There are plenty of English speaking brokerage firms in Moscow. This one is the best http://www.evans.ru/
Work
Teach English, start a company, start a blog, sell supplies to the American Revolutionaries fighting the US Federal Goverment! Finding wor is the tough part I will admit but where there is a will there is way.
Last note, this is my plan if HRC wins because if HRC wins, there will be no safe place left in the world except Russia. HRC will be the pale rider on the white horse and the Abomination of Desolation will be when the US Government rolls over Christians to force them to have reprobates get married in Churches. HRC will unleash the Mizzou Black Panthers and Rainbow Warriors upon America like a plague. The Yanks who go to Russia can support the resistance from there.
Teach English.
Thats the funniest.
1. You wont make squat.
2. As with most menial jobs , 1000's of Russians will do it better and faster than you. As with all this fantasy overseas riches.
If youre a billionaire ,yea ,open a marina in Belize ,whatever. But the average person will have a rude awakening.
Another guy selling a passport program. I bought into this BS once.
Go leave. Get out. Take your lucre with you .
A wake up call will occur
I think Miss Russia is pretty average looking for Russia.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j724L0vXG9c
Why not marry a nice European lady, then take that citizenship and live 6 months there, 6 in the US?
Get the best of both worlds. The US as a country still has a lot to offer, so does Europe.
Anyone remember a great trader called Monroe Trout?
He dumped his US citizenship and took out Irish about 15-20 years ago. I bet if you ask him right now he'll tell you it was the best trade/move he ever did. Wouldn't be surprissed if he spends most of his time in the US, but the IRS fuckers can't touh him or his money, hundreds of millions of USD, maybe more.
He knew what was coming so did something about it.
I think the US citizens living abroad is in the millions. Many choose to live abroad because they actually feel more free. I also think the ones giving up their US citizenship are doing it because they have to. If you make 100,000 dollars per year why should you pay 28,000 thousand of that to a government in some cases half way around the world that does nothing for you? A government that would do that is truly a horrible government and it certainly isn't free. I also never see it mentioned, but you need another passport to give up your US citizenship. In my case it is impossible unless I buy one and the last time I checked it was over 50,000 dollars. Some smart country should start selling passports. The market is there. However I am sure the US government would retaliate in some way.
And as mentioned here there is always FATCA. It is a back door capital control move. Americans everywhere are finding they cannot open bank accounts. If you don't have a foreign bank account it is difficult to move money out of the US which was one of its intents. I have been turned down in opening a foreign bank account. FATCA shows just how horrible the US government has become. If you lived abroad and had the opportunity to drop your US citizenship, why wouldn't you?
Many countries sell PP.
Look around.
If you ,whomever cant figure how to get their assets out, they shoulldnt go.
The PP program sellers paint a rosy picture.
For a country of 310 million these numbers are miniscule. And people change nationality all the time. When people move to the U.S. and become Americans no one calls them a traitor. Get a grip.
Carl is right - above you.
"Government numbers only count those who expatriate and pay more than $150,000 per year in taxes. Those who pay less aren't included. I believe the numbers are much higher."
Government numbers only count those who expatriate and pay more than $150,000 per year in taxes. Those who pay less aren't included. I believe the numbers are much higher.
Im actually in the process of getting my citizenship. Hsve to have it for my job. I will keep my german passport though just in case.
Most of the idiotic comments below display a certain lack of imagination by the typical US food stamp loving meth addict. GET OFF THE COUCH. Go see the world and you will soon realize that a lot of places you dismiss as Third World shit holes are in fact not shit holes at all. You will return to the US realizing that it is the shit hole.
Trends certainly are negative, and I think time is running out quickly. The wall is the day nobody loans $ to the Treasury and the Fed buys it all, entirely created electron fiat.
https://thinkpatriot.wordpress.com/2015/11/11/dynamics-of-national-colla...
"I recently spoke with a consultant who gave up his U.S. citizenship. He’s now a citizen of Dominica, a small Caribbean country, and splits his time between Asia and South America"
This works for the very well to do,no one else.
Cost for Dominica citizenship is a out of reach for most Americans,$100k for a single, $175k for a couple.
"Sadly, I think the whole "gun control" effort by TPTB is a sham, a boogie-man which they resurrect to scare the populace, theatre in which they are foiled at the last moment so the US can keep their guns.
The reason is very simple, as was just stated on this thread. Gun ownership is no threat to TPTB - in fact, it acts as a pacifier, making the populace think that they still have the means of overthrowing those in power.
Gun ownership is good for protecting your home against armed robbers perhaps, but against the government virtually useless against the modern militarized (and now Federalized) Police State we live in..."
Fortunately for us, that same old Democrat mantra is DOA.More Americans are buying weapons, and more believe in owning them, and most do not want to live in neighborhoods where there are no armed people living.More and more states are allowing residents to conceal carry and/or open carry if they wish.I do not know when the Dems (if ever) will learn the anti gun meme is a losing proposition for them,but I am glad they keep losing races doing it.
Also,I think you forget the veterans, and the mllitary who took oaths(very serious and dear to their hearts) while some may follow the Gestapos orders, there are millions that will be with the citizenry when it comes to that.(and they are tons still here.)
Why do you think they keep most of our militay boots overseas all the time, and NEVER deliver ballots on time in ANY POTUS election for the rank and file to get their votes filled out and counted?.Because they vote Conservatively.