The State Department has slashed by about 80% the fee for Americans to formally renounce their U.S. citizenship.

The State Department has slashed by about 80% the fee for Americans to formally renounce their U.S. citizenship.

After years of legal battles with several groups representing Americans wanting to give up their citizenship, the department on Friday published a final rule in the Federal Register that reduces the cost from $2,350 to $450.

The new fee, which took effect on Friday, had been promised in 2023 but had never been implemented. The cost is now the same as it was when the State Department first started charging Americans to formally renounce their citizenship in 2010.

  • dhork@lemmy.worldEnglish
    5·
    5 days ago

    Not many, but more common than you think, particularly in HCOL areas where real estate prices have spiked, and even a modest house is over $1M. You might think “Yeah, but those folks have no equity”, but there are plenty of people who bought in 20+ years ago who are sitting on all that equity but can’t do anything with it until they sell.

    Also, retirement assets count in that, and even though we see headlines talking about how unprepared most people are for retirement, there are plenty of people who are.

    Add in the fact that most countries won’t hand out residency to anyone unless they are in a key field, and you will find that the people with the means to decide to emigrate are often the ones that have these assets in the first place.

    • favoredponcho@lemmy.zip
      3·
      4 days ago

      Also, plenty of people that would renounce American citizenship are probably doing so because of tax concerns. The US is the only country that taxes citizens even if they don’t live there. You could make all your income in another country and the US still wants a piece. For people that make a modest wage in another country, there are exceptions to avoid double taxation. But, if you make a sizable part of your income from capital gains, being taxed on that when you don’t even live in the US probably becomes a motivating factor.

      • plyth@feddit.orgEnglish
        1·
        4 days ago

        Which has a price:

        Notably, entry can be denied to persons who renounced their U.S. citizenship to avoid paying income taxes.

        https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reed_Amendment_(immigration)

        The U.S. government has never issued regulations to implement the Reed Amendment.

        Passport control at John F. Kennedy International Airport. U.S. Customs and Border Patrol officers decide whether former U.S. citizens arriving in the U.S. are inadmissible based on the Reed Amendment. They have only found two people inadmissible in the past 15 years.