The number of individuals renouncing U.S. citizenship
has been increasing annually since 2012. (Wiktor
Szymanowicz/Barcroft/Getty Images)
A record number of individuals renounced their U.S. citizenship or chose to expatriate in 2016, according to data published by the Internal Revenue Service today.
The government agency, a bureau of the U.S. Treasury
Department, publishes the names of those individuals in a list each
quarter, in accordance with the Internal Revenue Code. Before 2011, less
than 1,000 individuals chose to expatriate each year, according to the
lists published on the Federal Register. More than 2,300 expatriated in
the last quarter of 2016 alone, and this year's total of 5,411
individuals is 26 percent more than last year's 4,279.
The connection between the list of expatriates and the IRS implies a link to tax policy. The U.S.
is one of a very small number of countries that tax based on
nationality, not residency, leaving Americans living abroad to face
double taxation. "The escalation of offshore penalties over the last 20
years is likely contributing to the increased incidence of
expatriation," according to the tax attorneys at Andrew Mitchel LLC who
track the expatriate data on their International Tax Blog.
U.S.-born British Foreign Minister Boris Johnson – who has spoken out against the U.S. tax code, The Guardian reports – appears on this quarter's list, which was initially released on Wednesday and published online on Thursday.
However, today's list that covers the last quarter of 2016 – the time period after Donald Trump was elected president – is nearly twice as long as the list from the last quarter of 2015.
Leading up to the U.S. election, a number of high-profile
individuals, including Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg and
actor Bryan Cranston said, jokingly or otherwise, that they would leave
the country if Trump was elected. A number of countries, including Canada and New Zealand, also launched campaigns promoting themselves as destinations for Americans looking to leave the country after the election.
The IRS reports include the names of expatriated
individuals for which the Treasury secretary has received information,
which is subject to logistical delay, but the annual totals of
individuals choosing to expatriate has been steadily rising since 2012.
1 comment:
we need volunteers to make room for the illegals
Post a Comment