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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: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 04 2014, @04:43AM
"everyone has heard a story"
Oh I forgot my favorite story, the spammers and scammers have caught on and I've heard plenty of stories from Canadians about getting email and postal spam from "the IRS" requesting $500 fees and stuff because "everyone's heard about it". Often the spam claims the IRS accepts paypal or credit card payments, LOL.
Elle Oh fucking Elle.