Nigel Green, CEO, deVere Group
The number of American expatriates tempted to renounce their U.S. citizenship as a result of the Foreign Account Compliance Act (FATCA) tax law is growing — by 11 percent over the last year, to be exact — according to a poll conducted by deVere Group, an independent financial advisory firm.
FATCA, which went into effect on July 1, requires all non-U.S. financial institutions to report the financial information of American clients with offshore accounts larger than $50,000 directly to the IRS, or face a costly 30 percent penalty tax.
Of the 414 American ex-pat clients surveyed this month by deVere in its poll, 79 percent said they had “actively considered,” “are thinking about,” or “have explored the option of renouncing their U.S. passport” due to FATCA, according to a company statement.
Seven percent said they were unsure, and 14 percent said they would not consider relinquishing their citizenship.
In the same poll last year, 68 percent of respondents answered affirmatively to the question “Would you consider voluntarily relinquishing your U.S. citizenship due to the impact of FATCA?”
Nigel Green, deVere Group’s founder and CEO, is an outspoken critic of FATCA and earlier this month denounced the law for its heavy-handed, “imperialistic” approach to tracking American’s overseas assets.
“The jump in the number of Americans who are tempted to sever official ties with the United States highlights how the true scope of FATCA’s adverse effects is now really hitting U.S. citizens who live and/or work overseas,” says Green, in a written statement. “In this latest survey, significantly more respondents flagged up specific problems, such as not being able to open bank accounts in their countries of residence, or having existing ones shut down by banks, or the costs and lengthy processes of complying with FATCA, amongst other problems. This could probably explain the increase.”
A deVere Group company statement notes that figures from the U.S. Treasury Department show passport relinquishments were up 220 percent in 2013 compared to the previous year. There are 7.6 million U.S. expatriates worldwide, according to the statement.
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