Expatriation and Renunciation of U.S. Citizenship

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about the guide to expatriation and renunciation of U.S. citizenship that I linked to a few days back. And the Interwebs seem to be sharing my interest, at least judging from the links that have been passing through my feed reader lately. Here are a few:

  • Here’s an excerpt from that guide: Ten Benefits of Expatriation.
  • Disrespect for Government Is as American as Fried Bananas — Felipe Franco says that despite Americans’ pretensions to a revolutionary heritage of limitations on government and suspicion of rulers, the U.S. has a bigger, more intrusive, and less-questioned government than most of the rest of the Americas (something Franco keenly feels, with “a painful twinge,” whenever he returns to the U.S. from south of the border).

    But see this response from Jorge at Sunni and the Conspirators.

  • The Wall Street Journal calls Americans abroad Toxic Citizens and explains why their government makes it hard for them to have normal financial lives overseas, and how this is causing some to look into renouncing their citizenship.
  • “P.T. Freeman” tells why he renounced his citizenship in part because of U.S. restrictions on visiting Cuba (part 2, part 3).
  • Fred Reed is a favorite ornery expatriate writer. Here are some highlights from his work:

In not entirely unrelated news, I’m going on another south-of-the-border vacation next month, so expect lighter posting hereabouts in .



I got another letter from the IRS. If you remember from , they sent me a note suggesting that perhaps I’d forgotten to apply for the Earned Income Tax Credit, since, to them, it looked as though I qualified. I’d assumed that I didn’t qualify and so didn’t bother to do the paperwork, but it looks like I was mistaken. Yesterday’s letter confirms that they have credited me with $143 towards last year’s taxes, meaning now (with a little additional interest & penalties) I only owe them $1,230.88 for .