An email from John Strohmeyer this morning made me laugh: Important part At a news conference this morning, Sens. Schumer and Bob Casey, D-Pa., will unveil the “Ex-PATRIOT” – “Expatriation Prevention by Abolishing Tax-Related Incentives for Offshore Tenancy” – Act to respond directly to Saverin’s move, which they dub a “scheme” that would “help him [...]

The United States has not had capital controls (i.e., restrictions on the ability to move money out of the country) for a long time.  Here is an article about what it’s like in Iceland where such restrictions exist. By curious coincidence, the last few years of tax law and tax enforcement are propelling the United [...]

You’ve seen the articles.  Heard the rants on TV.  Seen my prior blog post. Now here is the economic reason he gave up his U.S. citizenship last September, pre-IPO. How he was taxed when he gave up citizenship When you give up your citizenship, the IRS pretends that you sold everything the day before.  Let’s [...]

Thanks to frequent commenter Tim for the link. Eduardo Saverin, a Facebook co-founder, renounced his U.S. citizenship last year. Only an elected official would fail to predict such events. (There are other utterly predictable events from Federal tax policy that somehow fail to register on the Congressional Richter Scale). It is also utterly predictable that [...]

This is a question I get again and again, because we do so much advising in this area — giving up U.S. citizenship or green cards. Here is a simple explanation of how it works.  If you’re just starting to think about giving up your U.S. citizenship or green card, this is the place to [...]