International Man – How I renounced my citizenship and why

Part 1:

The article referenced in the above tweet it here. The “why” is more interesting than the “how”.

The article begins with:

 

Having evolved philosophically in my adulthood to a fairly hardcore libertarian worldview, I had read the writings of people like Doug Casey, which encouraged people even some decades ago to take concrete steps to internationalize themselves. Not just “talk the talk,” but to actually “walk the walk.”

My professional career offered me the chance to travel abroad quite a bit, so it was not too difficult for me to begin taking baby steps to internationalize.

I rented an apartment in one of the Asian cities that I frequently visited. A few years later, I made my first overseas real estate purchase of a small apartment in another Asian city, followed by several more in the next few years.

By this time, I was managing to spend about 2/3 of each year outside the US—you could say that I waded into the pool, rather than just diving in.

The passage of the first of the three recent “exit tax” laws by Congress in 1996 had alerted me to how high-stakes the US government regarded full expatriation to be—and inclined me toward doing so.

I reasoned that if they were that anxious to discourage people from leaving, it might well be time to seriously consider doing so.

Part 2:

This includes:

The increasingly great difficulty (largely due to FATCA, FBAR, and Form 8938 reporting requirements) of trying to lead a normal life while living overseas as a US citizen is—and ought to be—reason enough for many to give up their US citizenship.

 

 

Related articles across the web