Tabloid trash Drudge Report’s headline: More American expats renouncing citizenship…
Why more American expats are renouncing their US citizenship (iamexpat.nl)
Between three thousand and six thousand US citizens have relinquished citizenship each year since 2013, compared to estimates of anywhere between three million and nine million US citizens residing abroad.
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The number of relinquishments is up sharply from lows in the 1990s and 2000s, though only about three times as high as in the 1970s. Lawyers believe this growth is mostly driven by accidental Americans who grew up abroad and only became aware of their US citizenship and the tax liabilities for citizens abroad due to ongoing publicity surrounding the 2010 Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act.
The U.S. population is about 336 million people. About 1/1000th of 1% are giving up citizenship each year, too few to even notice.
As noted here frequently, very few Americans are moving abroad, perhaps half of those who do were already dual citizens of other countries, or married a foreigner. As noted above, most of those who relinquish their U.S. citizenship were “accidental Americans” who live abroad and did not realize their foreign citizenship (like U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz who had dual U.S. and Canadian citizenship but did not know that until a few years ago). Since they have lived abroad elsewhere their entire life or most of it, there are tax consequences for retaining their U.S. citizenship – thus, they give it up.