Monday 12 August 2013

Greedy or Angry Americans renouncing citizenship? Small number processed into Enormous Story.

Recent headlines include:
U.S. Expats Balk at Tax Law:  American Citizen Renunciations Are Soaring  (Wall Street Journal)

Not a lie but still a modest number.  In the first half of the year, fewer than one American in three hundred thousand renounced citizenship to avoid a pernicious tax.   The number has bumped up because a new predatory tax law is about to come into effect.  (Noted in
Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act.
the Wall Street Journal link above).  That number will be heading back down soon.   America is about the only jurisdiction that tries to tax what its citizens make in other countries as well as their own, leading to double taxation.  This is absurd overreach.  It's also behind recent stories condemning Apple for holding earnings overseas where they were earned.  To bring them to America to create American jobs would wipe out about a third of the treasure trove.

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