Americans Are Still Giving Up Their Citizenship at Record Rates

[WestVirginiaRebel]

Fortune:

Wave bye-bye to Aaron Adkins and William Acheson. Say so long to Elena Zona and Sheila Zyngier. Those names are the start and end of a long list of former Americans who turned in their passports during the second quarter of the year.

 

All told, those four people and 500 other Americans renounced their citizenship last quarter, compared to 461 during the same period in 2015. The increase, which comes after 1,158 Americans turned in their passports during the first quarter, means the U.S. is on track to set another record for what the U.S. Treasury Department calls “Individuals who have chosen to expatriate.”

 

To put this in context, fewer than 300 people chose to cease being Americans in all of 2006, meaning renunciation rates have arisen about 15-fold in a decade.

 

So why are so many folks saying so long to Uncle Sam? The Treasury Department, which is obliged to publish quarterly lists, doesn’t offer any explanations.

 

But the best guess is probably not Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump (yet), but the U.S. tax system.

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All aboard the expatriate train?