What’s the STRANGEST THING you’ve ever seen go on clearance? I’ll start: Renouncing your American citizenship.
If you didn’t know, you actually have to PAY to give up your U.S. citizenship. Beginning in 2010, the State Department started charging a $450 fee to cover the administrative costs of the officials overseeing the process and paperwork.
The fee jumped to $2,350 five years later, because there was a SURGE in Americans wanting to leave.
It wasn’t related to an election, it was due to changes in U.S. tax reporting requirements that infuriated many American expatriates.
Well, the State Department has just announced an 80% clearance sale, slashing the cost of renouncing your citizenship by $1,900, back to the original fee of $450.
(There are wealthy people who move to Europe or something, and $2K isn’t a big deal to them. But there’s another, overlooked group.)
(They’re “Accidental Americans” who only have citizenship because they happened to be born here, but live with families in another country and didn’t ever intend on living here or being citizens.)
(America’s citizenship-based taxation can be a huge financial burden for those living abroad. And even if you IGNORE Uncle Sam yelling at you from afar, many financial institutions are international, and are obligated to report you. So it can be a headache to get bank accounts and mortgages.)
(AP News)
