Friday, November 2, 2012
Names of U.S. Expatriates Released for 3rd Quarter 2012
The Treasury Department today published the names of 238 individuals who renounced their U.S. citizenship or terminated their long-term U.S. residency (“expatriated”) in the third quarter of 2012. Andrew Mitchel has updated his chart of the number of U.S. expatriates since January 1, 2005:
https://taxprof.typepad.com/taxprof_blog/2012/11/names-of-.html
Comments
I am surprised at how many "Asian" (evidently Chinese and Korean) names are on that list. I thought that the flow was in our direction from those countries (including Judge Posner's planeloads of pregnant Chinese women coming to this country to give birth), but maybe once they get rich, they return home?
Posted by: Andy Patterson | Nov 3, 2012 11:38:29 AM
If someone leaves California, should we have a law that prohibits him from ever returning? What if he does so to avoid California taxes? What if he received a heavily subsidized California education (back when that was something to be proud of)? The only other country I've ever seen in the news for objecting to emigration was the former USSR, which tried to impose an exit fee on emigrants to recoup the costs of social services previously received. Not sure the US should be emulating the former USSR.
Posted by: Theodore Seto | Nov 3, 2012 8:31:37 AM
I think the term "expatriate" gives a negative connotation to something that really isn't necessarily negative. Someone who makes a determination to remain a permanent citizen of one country instead of becoming a citizen of their resident country isn't necessarily doing so because they hate their resident country, nor are they necessarily doing it for malicious reasons (tax evasion/avoidance).
I had a friend from South America who had to go back every 6 months so she didn't lose her citizenship, because her family was there, and they couldn't afford to move to the U.S. I think that's a pretty valid reason, although I acknowledge that there are those with reasons that do have no legitimate reasoning and should be monitored. That may have stopped George Georgiou from screwing over those offshore companies back in 2008.
Posted by: Matthew Whitten | Nov 3, 2012 6:24:39 AM
Sid you're a moron this is a free country and I have the right to travel as I wish. There are many American expatriates who remain loyal citizens but who choose to live and work overseas. My family was one of them. But what reasoning should we have have not been allowed to return to our own country?
Posted by: anon | Nov 3, 2012 6:06:47 AM
This is obviously the people that can afford to leave, which are also the most capable people to affect change in the US. This reminds me of the people that left communist Russia, fascist Germany and other states of tyranny from the past.
Posted by: Ken | Nov 3, 2012 11:52:14 AM