Oh goody. US becoming more like USSR

[Terr]

@BrainGlutton

Did not know that. However, looking at this:

I see nothing that says renunciation is irrevocable for a native-born citizen – that would create constitutional problems – and no instance of a native-born renunciate being denied re-entry to the U.S. – which also would.

The irrevocability of citizenship renunciation is on the same page that I gave you above, at the bottom.

[Fear_Itself]

@BrainGlutton

I see nothing that says renunciation is irrevocable for a native-born citizen…

Cecil said it, I believe it, and that settles it!

How do I go about renouncing my U.S. citizenship?

[Fuji]

@Chronos

You want to ask why other countries don’t have a similar policy? I don’t know, ask them. But a policy of expats paying taxes is hardly ridiculous.

But it’s not just some nebulous assortment of “other countries” - as noted by both Time and The New York Times:

“The U.S. is the only industrialized nation that taxes its overseas citizens, subjecting them to taxation in both their country of citizenship and country of residence.” (emphasis added)

Perhaps it is simply because, as in many other aspects, the US federal government is a bit of a bully and likes to push other countries around to get away with impositions which they would never accept themselves and/or treat its citizens in a manner which citizens of no other industrialized nation would tolerate. In other words, they do because they can. I’d like to hear a rational defense of this offensive policy, rather than mere hand-waving.

[quant18]

@Fear Itself

The ban on re-entry has been the law since 1996.

It’s unenforceable, says Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reed_Amendment_(immigration)

Then again, I wrote that article, so of course I’d agree with it.

@Guinastasia

In this specific case though, Saverin just went and ditched his citizenship because he didn’t want to pay taxes. That’s it. Period. Imagine if everyone in the country decided to do that?

You cannot renounce US citizenship while living in the US; you have to be overseas (unless it’s wartime … which of course would require Congresscritters to actually go on the record as voting for it). So “if everyone in the country decided to do that” would mean the whole country would be empty. In that case they could probably evade all their taxes because there would be no one at the IRS to collect them.
http://www.uscis.gov/ilink/docView/SLB/HTML/SLB/0-0-0-1/0-0-0-29/0-0-0-10428.html

The U.S. is on the restrictive end of the scale when it comes to the rights of ex-citizens. To give a few random examples: the Philippines automatically gives one-year visas to former citizens and lets them apply to resume citizenship (“Republic Act 9225”) any time they want. In Hong Kong, you can renounce Chinese citizenship (“declaration of change of nationality”) while retaining HK permanent residency (and of course, if you live there you continue to be taxed just like any other resident). In Denmark, former citizens are entitled to unlimited visas to allow them to live and work in the country as they please (and again, if they live there they pay Danish taxes, and if they live elsewhere they don’t).