I’ve been considering renouncing US citizenship for a while, mainly because I never intend to live there again and I’m tired of filling out tax returns each year even though I make too little money to owe any tax. Well thanks to my representative, Nancy Pelosi, this just got a bit more complicated. According to a small entry in the 300th or so listing on Google after a search, I discovered that now you are required to treat all your property as though you had sold it the day before you renounce your citizenship and then pay capital gains tax on it. There is an exemption of $600,000, which will be linked to the wage-price index, and of course I have no property, real or otherwise.
This burns my behind. The United States has been treating expatriates as second-class citizens for years, making us fill out useless tax returns and considering people who want to live outside the US and become citizens there as somehow less than human. No other country bar the Philippines and Eritrea taxes its expats.
Those silly Democrats tacked this onto the bill raising the minimum wage. Slyly. Over the years this stealth tax on expats has been made more and more complex. However, it looks as though at least those of us who decide to renounce US citizenship won’t have to continue to file tax returns for 10 years after renouncing, as many do now, and the $600,000 floor means that few if any expats will be liable for this. But the silly bureaucracy around expatriation will now become worse.
So, the choice is becoming clearer. I’m starting to think this is the year to do it. That way it will be a clean break, and I won’t have to file any more tax returns.
I worry Border Services might be a complete pain when you try to visit, including finding a pre-text to barr you from entry.
I’ve thought about that. I visit maybe twice a year, for about a week each time. I could cut that down. I also understand (although I haven’t come across any actual testimonies from former US citizens in their blogs, for example) that as long as you’ve followed the rules you are then treated as any other alien when queueing at immigration.
If that were the case, I would (I believe) not particularly mind. I feel European, I prefer to live here, and I will want to stay here for the rest of my life. If the price of renouncing US citizenship will be eternal trouble at the borders, I think I’m ready to undergo that.
Had I stated when I was naturalised here that I intended my naturalisation to be evidence that I wished to renounce my American citizenship, this wouldn’t be a problem now. Oh, well, what can you do. I just have to crack on and do it.
The real pain will be when I am mistaken for an American (as I often am now) or worse, a tourist. I always say ‘My passport says “British Citizen”–what does yours say?’
If only the United States were sensible about such things, rather than extremely chauvinistic!