U.S. Law Pushes Overseas Americans To Renounce Citizenship

It's now virtually impossible for Americans to bank in other countries

American citizens who live outside the United States are increasingly considering renouncing their US citizenship as Washington prepares to roll out FATCA, said the chief executive of a financial advisory firm.

Nigel Green, chief executive of the deVere Group, has said that over the last six months, the advisory firm had received a 22 percent increase in the number of enquiries from American expatriates around the world who are considering switching their homeland citizenship to that of their adopted countries.

"The majority of these US expats are being prompted to consider this due to the complexity of the reporting process to the IRS, plus the threats of heavy penalties, including for previous, inadvertent non-compliance.