Americans renouncing U.S. citizenship surged sixfold in the second quarter from a year earlier as the government prepares to introduce tougher asset-disclosure rules.
Expatriates giving up their nationality at U.S. embassies climbed to 1,131 in the three months through June from 189 in the year-earlier period, according to Federal Register figures published today. That brought the first-half total to 1,810 compared with 235 for the whole of 2008.
More at link: http://finance.yahoo.com/news/americans-giving-passports-jump-sixfold-105958873.html
Financial fascism anyone?
What makes that number even more interesting is that the markets are back up and many investments now have a fair market value above where they were just prior to the crash. That's important because it means a lot of these people are going to have a hefty tax bill to pay as the price of expatriation: they have to mark all of their assets to market, recognize the gain as currently taxable income, and pay Uncle Sugar tax on that phantom income. That or they can remain subject to US tax on their worldwide income for the next 10 years.
Financial fascism? Socio-economic fascism. Basic garden variety fascism.
