The Liability of US Citizenship for Expats

I've been considering this myself. I just don't derive any benefit from the US taxes I personally pay and if just being a citizen means the US has a right to tax me regardless of where I live and earn money it is a significant financial liability for life outside the United States.

I was reading that article last night. It's a very small percentage, overall, as I recall. Once citizenship is renounced, is it permanent? I don't remember if that was mentioned.

I have a cousin who has been working for his company in Zurich for the past couple of years. They make it worth his while, but I don't see him giving up his citizenship over taxes. Who really knows, though.

Does the US have a treaty with Costa Rica? It was my understanding a decade ago that foreign taxes worked as either a deduction, or outright credit to the US taxes. I don't recall if it involved tax treaty or most favored nation status.

I can deduct something around $90,000 (didn't do my taxes this year, so I don't recall exact amount) but it's a lot more than just taxes. It's a fundamental notion of America believing they have the legal right to control their citizens regardless of where they live and America's penchant for prohibition (e.g. online poker).

Few countries are that authoritarian, and some are very very generous when it comes to taxes. Given that I don't use American infrastructure, American citizenship is both a financial liability and an impediment to freedom to me.

Also, given that many nations have visa restrictions that reciprocate how their citizens are treated it also can make for travel restrictions. For example, American citizens have to apply for a visa in advance to go to Brazil while a Costa Rican could just show up and get one while they are having their passport stamped. This is because that is how Costa Rica treat's Brazilian citizens entering the country but the United States makes it very difficult for Brazilians to enter the country. It doesn't make financial sense, mind you, for Brazil to reciprocate this way (Costa Rica doesn't with the US and Americans can enter without pre-obtaining a visa) but it's another American citizenship tax when operating abroad.

According to US Law...Title 22, Code of Federal Regulations, section 50.20
Renunciation of US citizenship is permanent, with very few exceptions.

http://travel.state.gov/law/citizenship/citizenship_776.html

As for the tax part...

More of a liability that the possibility of returning to the states one day to live is a possible benefit, (she said slightly nervously)?

You are a person who changes their mind about where you're going to live a lot, or so it beseemeth.

Right now it's not yet worth the hassle of trying to change citizenship, but it may become so depending on where I go next. Part of changing would have to include citizenship in a country I'd not mind living in.

This makes it sound more like an STD than citizenship.

Thanks, MM. I think that small percentage of expats that are deciding to renounce are the ones that have been working abroad for decades anyway, or don't see themselves returning here to work anytime soon. I'd hate to pay double taxes (if that's the case), too. In my cousin's case, he's married with a small son, so he has other considerations besides just himself.

Of course...I was just thinking what an unpredictable world we live in, and all and gibbering slightly.

That's funny. Citizenship, like life, often IS a sexually transmitted condition!

Whether it's a disease or not kind of depends on where the great lottery of life lands one, I suppose.