News for hackers. Stuff that matters.

A comment on Wealthy people are renouncing American citizenship. Parent comment

Re:Wealthy people are renouncing American citizenship by emodendroket on Thursday August 05, 2021 @10:45AM (#28074430)
Most people don't actually owe anything so the burden is mostly administrative, and what you're going through it for is not "where you were born" but continued citizenship and attendant benefits. As the article describes, you're free to give that up if you don't think it is worth it.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Wealthy people are renouncing American citizenship by depressedpanda on Thursday August 05, 2021 @12:28PM (#28075951)
The article states

> "There are probably 20,000 or 30,000 people who want to [renounce citizenship], but they can’t get the appointment," Lesperance said. "There’s not a peak demand — the system’s capacity has peaked."

Also, it seems you need to pay a non trivial sum to do it, which is a real problem for US citizens abroad who are not rich.

"Free to give that up" does not apply, unfortunately.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Wealthy people are renouncing American citizenship by emodendroket on Thursday August 05, 2021 @12:43PM (#28076171)
Not sure where you got the thing about the cost, which doesn't seem to be in the article, but it also flatly states that "The people who flee tend to be ultra-wealthy, and many of them are seeking to reduce their tax burden."
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Wealthy people are renouncing American citizenship by depressedpanda on Thursday August 05, 2021 @01:43PM (#28077039)
The article talks about the ultra wealthy, but they have the power, money and means to easily deal with the citizenship taxation bs. I don't care about them.

The problem is that those rules are punishing regular people.

I know one person who wasn't allowed to open bank accounts because of her citizenship. Another who yearly gets stressad out because filing US taxes is such a grueling process compared to the local process where you're done within ten minutes. Another wants to renounce citizenship because he doesn't want to deal with the bureaucracy, but he cannot afford it.

They all live in Sweden, which I doubt anyone sane would consider a tax haven.

If Eritrea is the only other country in the world that implements similar draconian tax laws, maybe there's something wrong with those laws?

[ Parent | on HN ]