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from the breaking-up-is-hard-to-do dept.
The USA has been making life difficult for Americans residing abroad; FATCA causes plenty of problems; but so does citizenship-based taxation. The IRS and Treasury department have made the reporting and taxation more onerous, and stepped up their collection efforts.
The result should be a surprise to no one: more and more Americans are handing in their US citizenship. Total numbers are unavailable (the lists published by the government include only a portion of the total), but undisputed is the fact that the numbers are increasing rapidly.
Having lots of citizens want to leave is...embarrassing. One solution could be to review the policies leading to people to hand in their citizenship. Another would be to make the fee unaffordable, especially for people living on second- or third-world incomes. It's obvious, of course, which route the USA has chosen: It now costs $2350 to hand in your US passport; more than 20 times the international average.
(Score: 2) by Whoever on Thursday December 04 2014, @04:25AM
As a naturalized US citizen with investments in my home country, I have the same issues. I pay an accountant $600/year to handle all of this.
Some years ago, I was an expat with a large multinational (based in the USA) and that company paid its accountants 10x (in todays terms) what I pay my accountant. Perhaps they had a fixed rate and there was a lot more work involved for some expats, but I doubt it. I think it's just that accountants working for large partnerships are able to overcharge their clients.