Number of Americans Renouncing
Citizenship Hits All Time High
By Steve Rensberry
RP News
RP News
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| Graph courtesy of statista |
The announcement was reported on by data journalist Niall McCarthy of Statista, who notes that a total of 5,816 people gave up their U.S. citizenship during the first six months of 2020. This is more than double the number who relinquished their citizenship for all of 2019.
“The process involves paying a $2,350 government fee and expatriates have to present themselves in person at the U.S. embassy in their country of residence. Under IRS rules, the government publishes the names of all Americans who have given up their citizenship on a quarterly basis,” McCarthy writes.
Bambridge Accountants notes on its website that just 444 cases were recorded in the last six months of 2019, and only 2,072 Americans gave up their citizenship during all of 2019, representing an increase this year of 1,210 percent.
“The is the second highest quarter on record; the record is 2,909 cases for the first quarter of 2020,” the firm states. “It seems that the pandemic has motivated U.S. expats to cut ties and avoid the current political climate and onerous tax reporting . . . . There are an estimated 9 million U.S. expats. The trend has been that there has been a steep decline over the last few years of U.S. citizens expatriating - the first six months of 2020 is a huge increase in the number of Americans renouncing their citizenship.”
