Our own Noble Dreamer in the news. Wall Street Journal reports:
Expatriate Americans Break Up With Uncle Sam to Escape Tax Rules
By LIAM PLEVEN and LAURA SAUNDERS
“Ms. Moon is among record numbers of Americans cutting ties. U.S. offices abroad reported that 1,001 U.S. citizens and green-card holders had renounced their allegiance in the first three months of the year, according to Andrew Mitchel, a lawyer in Centerbrook, Conn., who analyzes Treasury Department data. That figure puts 2014 on track to top last year’s total of 2,999 renunciations, he said, which was the most since the government began disclosing the data.”
Thanks for your role in this article NobleDreamer, not to mention everything else you have been doing in this fight!
One thing I noticed, which I was surprised that Liam and Laura did not get right was this comment: ” Unlike other developed nations, the U.S. government taxes citizens on income they earn anywhere in the world. The rule dates to the Civil War, when Ms. Moon’s great-great grandfather served with Union forces.”
Lots of countries tax citizens on world-wide income. Canada does this too. The distinction that needs to be made is that what is unique about USA, is that it taxes worldwide income of citizens who live permanently outside the USA.
And thanks to Marvin Horn for sharing his story for the article as well.
Thanks Noble Dreamer for sharing your story. It brought up a question for me. The number of people renouncing citizenship in the US is given at 1001 for the first quarter of 2014. I have heard that this does not include the number of people relinquishing US allegiance. This would make for a much larger number of US persons exiting the homeland. Can anyone confirm this?
Thanks Tricia, John and Marvin for participating.
Good catch on that error WhiteKat. It is one that happens in the media too often-and helps to perpetuate the stereotype of rich tax evaders.
@Pat Canadian
The whole issue of numbers regarding renunciation is confusing. There are no clear guidelines as to who is included and who is not. Some wonderful work has been done by “Eric” who keeps up with NICS, an FBI llist that oddly enough, has numbers related to renunciates because it is against the law for one to have a gun if in the US. I will hunt down those links and post them.
@All
Thanks for your kind comments. I really appreciate them.
Kat, Marvin did catch that and I believe he is writing to the reporters about it. All in all, I think they did a great job and the lack of the usual idiot comments on the site speak to that as well as, maybe our efforts are beginning to pay off. People seem to be “getting it.”
I’ve been really impressed with the comments at the WSJ. I had an on-line subscription a year or two ago but cancelled because the op-ed page drove me crazy and the commenters seemed to be all Tea Bag Party types. The commenters seem to get it and with this being a front page story, it will be widely read in Washington
@BC Doc: Does anyone in Washington read? If they did, I am at a loss to understand how we got to where we are today.
They’ll figure it out late in the game. State-side when the agreements are declared unconstitutional and the tax treatment of USC overseas is ruled unconstitutional. The Conservative government here will get it when the IGA is overturned by the SCOC. The problem is by the time they figure it out, thousands and thousands of ex-pats will have “checked out” from the US at their local consulates. The damage will already be done.
A belated thanks to Tricia, Marvin and John. It’s always a pleasure to read about friends we have come to know, at least in the cyber world.
It seems that FATCA and CBT are getting some attention in the U.S. Perhaps we’ll hear more on or about July 1. Now, if we could only get the attention of the Canadian media.