Why Section 2801 is dumb
- If you are a covered expatriate, and
- You give money to a U.S. person, or you die and leave an inheritance to a U.S. person,
- Then the U.S. person pays a whacking big tax for receiving the money from you.

Philip D. W. Hodgen is the principal attorney of HodgenLaw PC, an international tax law firm based in Pasadena, California. He earned his undergraduate degree from Claremont McKenna College and his law degree from the School of Law at the University of California, Los Angeles. He then went on to earn a Master of Laws degree with a specialty in taxation from the University of San Diego School of Law. Admitted to the California bar in 1982, Phil spent nine years in law firms and with a large U.S. bank before starting his own firm in 1991.
Phil is a past chair of the International Tax Committee of the State Bar of California's Tax Section and was a member of the Executive Committee of the State Bar of California's Tax Section for 2004-2007. Phil frequently speaks on a variety of international tax, trust and estate topics to attorneys, accountants, and real estate professionals.
“Expatriate” to the U.S. tax authorities means someone who: relinquishes his/her U.S. citizenship; or cancels his/her U.S. permanent residency (AKA “green card”) status, where U.S. residency has continued for at least 8 years. We help people expatriate — we handle their wranglings with the State Department and the Internal Revenue Service. So I watch for…
We’re working on a rash of cases in which people are giving up their permanent resident visas or U.S. citizenship — expatriation cases. Expect a few blog posts along the way. Key resource for you Here’s a link to the IRS website and Notice 2009-85. This notice was published in October, 2009 and is the…
Yeah I’m internet famous. Or something. I was interviewed for an article that was published in TIME Magazine, Why More U.S. Expatriates Are Turning in Their Passports. Thanks, Helena for this. Our experience is that we are getting a lot of people who are looking to bail out of the United States. By far the majority…
There is an interesting article in the latest edition of Tax Notes International: “U.S. Expats and the Offshore Crackdown,” 58 Tax Notes Int’l 619 (May 24, 2010). I would link to it and give the author (David D. Stewart) a bit of public glory but it is behind the paywall at Lexis. And I can’t…
We do nothing but international tax stuff. On the outbound side (U.S. humans and companies doing business outside the USA) we have a steady flow of questions about the foreign earned income exclusion. The Federal government has just done a review of tax returns claiming the foreign earned income exclusion and has found (shocking, I…
People who give up their U.S. citizenship or their green card visas are subjected to the exit tax. This is imposed under Section 877A of the Internal Revenue Code. The exit tax treats you as having sold all of your assets on the day before you gave up your citizenship or your green card. If…
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Tax laws change over time, and the information in this post above may be less accurate today than it was at the time of the last revision. This post is not tax advice for your specific situation. Please contact an international tax professional to get personalized advice for your situation.
The nuts in Congress thought that the provision would be a disincentive to expatriation.
Instead, it’s another incentive to expatriate before you cross the Covered threshold.
The idea is to pick perhaps a European country or Canada for that matter and have someone look at their Discrimination Laws.
For example it seems to me to be discriminatory for a resident dual Swiss / US citizen to have their data passed to the IRS while another Swiss citizen does not incur such scrutiny. Should all resident Swiss citizens be treated the same from a data point of view?
Unless all things tax are exempted from discrimination laws it’s going to be hard to justify why that’s not discriminatory.
Shouldn’t all resident citizens enjoy the same financial freedom?
There must be another way to slay the FATCA dragon or at least slow it down to give people to think more about this.
Go onto Isaac Brock and check out the Stop FATCA short video it’s entertaining anyways.
I have not thought about the discrimination laws — my head is too deep in the tax stuff. What is the idea you have?
Phil
On investment did you see the US’ new website from the Dept of Commerce to encourage inward investment into the US.
http://selectusa.commerce.gov/
When you search under FATCA, it comes up ‘yields no results.’
Obviously they’re not advertising FATCA on that website.
Also one other thing – I’ve brought this up before, do you think using Discrimination Laws abroad could offer a ‘carve out’ for resident dual citizens. This idea has been floated with little or no response. Am I out in left field or is everyone so focused on the strictly tax side of this issue?
“it is NEVER good for taxpayers when the IRS publishes guidance”
ok. Phil I get it now 🙂
“it is NEVER good for taxpayers when the IRS publishes guidance”
ok. Phil I get now 🙂