Thank you. I had thought the cutoff was higher, but I am not a tax professional and am working from a famously poor memory.

Jan

Yes. It is also very concerning.

I am not bothered by this, since I am well below the cutoff value, but I have friends who made donaldducksounds when this rule was made. It increases the cost of 'voting with your feet' when and if the situation in the US becomes bad enough that the producers want to leave. And it is another example of a punitive 'screw the rich' attitude of our society. This rule will come into play when there is an Atlantis.

Jan

Nonsense. The right to move about freely is a fundamental Natural Right. Governments have a specific criminal reason for stopping someone from traveling. Thanks for supporting slavery of Americans and all people.

Hear hear

The other excuse for this nonsense is the absurd war on drugs.

Like the idea that you have to pay taxes to the US no-matter whether you live their? That is called slavery. Why does the US demand that you use a US passport if you have dual citizenship? That is not freedom.

There are all sorts of rules that does not make them right. For instance, those damn Jews who did not want to get in the ovens or those East Germans who didn't want to live their.

He held dual citizenship, folks.
There are rules for that.
He just didn't want to follow them.

If it was a Saudi, a Mexican, or otherwise, very few of us would for an instant complain about how they treated him.

He wanted to be able to verbally say something to people who aren't authorized to document it.
He didn't want to be bothered to document his decision.

Imagine if he had come back and said, "I'm an American! You're denying me my citizen based on the hearsay of these officials who aren't even working in Immigration? I'm SUING!"

He'd win, too. And the staff there knew they had no power, nor should have, to take down his ad hoc denial of his citizenship.

He didn't plan, he doesn't want to follow the rules so he's tossing aside everything he never participated in anyway in a whiny piece about a rule he could have easily followed but chose not to because he wanted to have his cake and eat it as well.

We owe this guy nothing. He's contributed nothing. He wants nothing from us and never did.

Good riddance.

Are you sure that he's not all living in a Monty Python skit? One of the side-effects of the rush to totalitarianism by the Obama regime is its outright silliness.

Thanks for the clarification.

Here is what Wikipedia says:
he first law to authorize taxation of former citizens was passed in 1966; it created Internal Revenue Code Section 877, which allowed the U.S.-source income of former citizens to be taxed for up to 10 years following the date of their loss of citizenship. Section 877 was first amended in 1996, at a time when the issue of renunciation of U.S. citizenship for tax purposes was receiving a great deal of public attention; the same attention resulted in the passage of the Reed Amendment, which attempted to prevent former U.S. citizens who renounced citizenship to avoid taxation from obtaining visas, but which was never enforced.[5][6] The American Jobs Creation act of 2004 amended Section 877 again.[7] Under the new law, any individual who had a net worth of $2 million or an average income tax liability of $139,000 for the five previous years[8] who renounces his or her citizenship is automatically assumed to have done so for tax avoidance reasons and is subject to additional taxes. Furthermore, with certain exceptions covered expatriates who spend at least 31 days in the United States in any year during the 10-year period following expatriation were subject to US taxation as if they were U.S. citizens or resident aliens.[9]

You can see where I got the 10 year rule.

I am glad to see the postings here actually (and thoughtfully) criticizing our laws relating to documentation, citizenship, and international travel.

In a very closely related area of freedom -
Too often many get hung up on "illegal" aliens, and fall back on (very possibly questionable) law as an ethical reason to restrict an individuals (or family's) ability to travel.

Comrade citizens, that selfish American-born Brit should have been proud to chip in toward the creation of our collective Socialist Utopia.
Why do hear of the IRS seizing the savings of suspect citizens without any legal due process?
Emergency measures must be taken to correct everything that is all Bush's fault.
Do you want solar energy to fail? It costs money to shut down the coal industry since electricity must necessarily skyrocket.
And what about all those badly needed bail outs companies who pledge money to the correct political party?
Do you really--really?--do you really want to disappoint that oo-wee so precious little boy who watched our glorious Chairman-In-Chief sign the unaffordable Affordable Health Care Act?
And don't you want to save all the teeny-tiny snail darter type fishes, sickly salamanders and newts no longer Darwinian fit to survive as a species? Profuse are the wetlands the EPA still needs to confiscate.
And plenty are the greedy capitalist refuseniks Big Brother needs to keep an eye on.
And what about those Tea Party terrorists?
And gosh darn it, don't you all want to contribute to the welfare of everybody?
Do your fair share to receive your fair share, I always say.
And on this Thanksgiving Day, do not forget to give thanks to the stewardship of our more than equal elite betters!
Keep that in mind as you enjoy all that food the starving future New World Order still can't eat.
Yeah, you. Keep that also in mind.

Once they forced him to get a US passport they would then go after his earnings as an "American living abroad", and even attach his bank accounts he has in the UK as "foreign held accounts". Even tho they are what he uses to live his life through.

Oh yeah - no more Cuban cgars or Rum or travel to Cuba for you as well... illegal to buy as an American, EVEN IF you are overseas. Subject to arrest and (of course) huge fines.

Were I the author, I would have made a quick call to the BRITISH consulate and told them that America no longer considered a UK passport valid. And why. And what they were requiring a Crown subject to do - essentially forcing him to tell HIS home, HIS country, and HIS laws to bugger off.

EVERY government tells their citizens to have their consulate's phone numbers loaded into their mobile before they enter a foreign country, and it's for situations like this - where one government (or their officers and officials) make unreasonable demands on their citizenry (potentially seen as treasonous by their home country) contrary to International law and treaty.

There is an exit tax, but you've got the details all wrong. I'm a tax professional and here's what I know.

The tax is not imposed on everyone who leaves the US, or even on everyone who leaves the US with more than $X. Rather, it only applies if the IRS believes you expatriated for the purpose of avoiding US taxes. Thus if you can convince them (or perhaps a court) that you had some other reason, you're probably OK.

But the exit tax, when it is charged, has nothing to do with your expected earnings for the next 10 years. Instead, what happens is that wealth above a certain amount (I seem to recall $250K) is taxed, in the neighborhood of 30%. In addition, all of your investments -- anything that would show up on Schedule D when sold -- are "deemed sold" at fair market value on the day before you renounced your citizenship, thus creating a capital gain or loss.

And of course you have to settle up at the US Embassy before handing in your passport.

Soon there will be a law against renouncing your citizenship. Got to keep your subjects here to pay taxes for life. After all they do for us that's the least we can do. [Sarcasm]

Yea, to the slapping we shall go.

Yes, but it did not start with administration.

This is outrageous and in keeping with the administration's apparent desire to make everyone it can American citizens ASAP... Just more arrogance. No wonder our reputation is faltering around the world...

America is the most powerful farmer over its livestock. Who are the livestock? Look in the mirror...

Whilst Boris bleats he will always be a subject of the Crown. My ex was born in Brittan and, as a result, our children are considered citizens of the U.K. My daughter only had to show the British Consulate in NYC her mother's birth records and they promptly gave her a British passport.
This comment in no way should be construed as a lessening of my desire to slap the arrogant a**holes in our government till their ears bleed.

Oh, I don't doubt your quote. It's just such a shame and shines a true light on the government's view of a citizen.

Was it Diogenes that carried the lamp looking for the truth/honest men??

I am quoting from memory, but I am pretty sure I am right.

Big surprise. Makes me think the "domestic terrorists" may have the better argument.

#2 - 10yrs!! That's confiscatory and insane!!

Actually there already are a couple of those: 1) to renounce your citizenship, and 2) a special IRS fee for your expected taxes for the next 10 years if it is above a certain amount.

In the 80s we complained that the Soviets charged a tax for Jewish immigrants to leave. Go figure?????