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.

Comments

[Ricky]

I renounced my U.S. citizenship this year and received my certificate of loss of nationality about a month later.

I was able to keep my bank accounts open in multiple countries because I was able to prove I'm no longer a U.S. citizen, these accounts were always reported with an FBAR and the new FATCA form for last years tax return.

Now just waiting for my final tax return to be sent off as soon as the IRS publishes this years final tax return forms, I had to pay the exit tax as I met the qualification but that's life.

You can also go stateless as the United States is one of the only countries that still allow you to give up your citizenship while not having another one, just make sure you have perm residency in the country you renounce in.

For those in doubt see U.S. State Dpeartment 7 FAM 1260 Renounciation of U.S. citizenship (google it) says the following:

Renunciation and statelessness: Potential renunciants who do not possess another nationality or a claim to one are nonetheless permitted to renounce U.S. nationality. In doing so the individual becomes stateless. You should explain the extreme difficulties that a stateless individual may encounter trying to establish residency in a foreign country or traveling between countries in order to ensure that the individual understands the consequences of statelessness. See 7 FAM 1215 for additional information about statelessness. If the individual still desires to proceed with the renunciation, you may proceed.

[Seeker]

Against my best wishes I am considering renouncing my citizenship. As a matter of fact this was suggested by the IRS after I explained to them my situation. I found this strange and my feelings were hurt. But after living and working in the USA for 30 years I am back in my country of origin. I have never invested one cent of what I earned in the USA here. But for the past four years my life became a nighmare after I learned about FBARS. I doubt if I will be able to comply with demands now being placed on me for reports and more reports. And what is worse, the threat of draconian penalties for possible mistakes. This is not fair.

[SwissPinoy]

I lived abroad for 20 years as a US citizen. Yet, due to recent changes in US policy, I renounced US citizenship last week. If America can't learn to appreciate and respect its citizens living abroad, then it must learn to accept that Americans abroad must take those measures necessary for their situation.