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Growing Number of Expats Renounce Citizenship as IRS Toughens Rules

Posted:
04/6/10

More green card holders and Americans living overseas are renouncing their U.S. citizenship as tax hikes for top earners loom and the Internal Revenue Service gets tough on reporting rules for accounts in foreign banks.

In the fourth quarter of last year, about 500 people across the globe severed ties with the U.S., more than double the total number in all of 2008, The Wall Street Journal reported.

Most of those were people with roots outside the U.S., such as professionals who got a green card while working in this country. Only a small number of those who renounced citizenship were Americans who moved abroad.

In March, the Treasury Department said it would begin enforcing rigorous reporting rules for Americans with foreign bank accounts. Those who fail to report accounts that total more than $10,000 could face penalties of up to half the balance.

On top of the stricter rules, the top marginal tax rate is set to go up nearly five percentage points at the end of 2010, according to the Journal.

"Fifteen or 20 years ago there was a big rush to make sure your kids became U.S. citizens, for access to U.S. schools for example," Timothy Burns, a tax lawyer in Hong Kong, told the newspaper. "Now we're seeing just the opposite."
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http://www.politicsdaily.com/2010/04/06 ... ughens-ru/

Matthew 10:32

It is written,...Whoever acknowledges me before men, I will also acknowledge him before my Father in heaven.