[circular_logic]

Interesting facts about renouncing American citizenship:

- There is renunciation fee that has to be paid and currently stands at $2,350 (the highest in the world).[1]

- A final tax return will sill need to be filed. [1]

- An Expatriation tax is payable if [..] Your net worth is $2 million or more on the date of your expatriation. you will be treated as having disposed of your assets the day before your expatriation and will be subject to capital gains tax.

- The highest capital gains tax bracket in the USA is 20% [2]

Now there will be ways this is avoided but it would seem that the IRS is trying very hard make this process unappealing

[1] https://www.expatnetwork.com/how-to-renounce-us-citizenship-...

[2] https://www.nerdwallet.com/article/taxes/capital-gains-tax-r...

[bell-cot]

> ...it would seem that the IRS is trying very hard make this process unappealing

IANAL, but I believe that all the unpleasantries which you note were decided by the U.S. Congress. (Most probably with the President's sign-off.) Making the IRS out to be the Real Villain(tm) here only helps a bunch of self-serving politicians to evade responsibility.

[AdamN]

+100

[azinman2]

And what's wrong with this? Personally I'm very happy to see it. The idea that you make tons and tons of money by what America has worked hard to offer you and then you want to skip town because of taxes? Taxes that help pay for all the advantages that got you that wealth in the first place?

Good for Congress for trying to prevent this.

[Retric]

That honestly seems quite reasonable. Citizenship comes with all sorts of obligations like getting drafted and serving on juries, taxes are simply the most obvious.

On the up side you can apparently still qualify for Social Security benefits.

[FredPret]

Citizens are not assets of the state

[geomark]

Yeah, but receiving payments can be an issue because U.S. banks won't deal with you without a U.S. address.

[Chris2048]

> Citizenship comes with all sorts of obligations like getting drafted and serving on juries

If you've already done those things, does the IRS pay you?

[shell0x]

While $2350 is expensive, compare that to Australia. My friend got sponsored by his partner for a partner visa and the fee is AUD7,850 for most applicants.

https://immi.homeaffairs.gov.au/visas/getting-a-visa/visa-li...

It's a huge rip-off like everything in this country.

The $2350 seem to be cheaper than fees for filing annual tax returns for the next 50 years :)

[smnrchrds]

The fee for renouncing Australian citizenship is 265 AUD equivalent to 196 USD.

https://immi.homeaffairs.gov.au/citizenship/give-up-citizens...

[GordonS]

On the other side of the equation (getting citizenship, rather than renouncing it), here in the UK I have a Chinese friend for whom it cost over £20k to gain citizenship after she married a local. (this was the total paid to the government over, I think, a 3 year period).

[jandrese]

It's even more expensive than that since they don't refund you the money you paid into Social Security when you renounce.

[whymauri]

lol, as Gen Z I've more-or-less accepted that my Social Security is just setting my money on fire and dancing in a circle.

[neilc]

You do not need to be a US citizen to be eligible to collect US Social Security benefits.

https://www.aarp.org/retirement/social-security/questions-an...

[BeetleB]

Social Security is not a pension - this is a common misconception.

The SS tax is to pay current retirees. There's a formula that states how much you'll get when you retire, but the money you're putting in now is not being saved/invested for your benefit in the future.

The short version: Money you put into SS is not your money.

[emodendroket]

Why would they refund past taxes you'd paid?

[ziggus]

The 20% capital gains tax bracket is applicable to assets held longer than one year.

Short term gains are taxed at your normal tax rate.

[apples_oranges]

Can a citizenship be exchanged? For example you get my Australian passport, I get your American? Neither country loses a taxpayer this way.. ;)

[ttyprintk]

I believe to renounce you must first have dual nationality. You could marry a foreigner for nationality, then (eventually) both renounce your home country.

[shell0x]

Not exchanged, but considering Australia and America are both immigrant countries, you may be able to get an Italian or Irish passport based on ancestry if your ancestors came from there.

[cblconfederate]

I always wanted to start a "couchsurfing for passports" , or even airbnb. If one is a citizen, they can vet for an exchange citizen, sounds democratic to me.

[javert]

"- The highest capital gains tax bracket in the USA is 20% [2]"

Not really, because they can arbitrarily change it and backdate the change at any time, and they are currently planning to raise it to 43% and backdate the change.

In truth, the US does not have a fixed capital gains rate.

[psychlops]

The stimulus checks allowed them to afford to renounce citizenship.

[depressedpanda]

You're assuming everyone got a stimulus check. That's not the case.