Wake up People: Emigration, Immigration and Taxation are all connected.

We covered this story a couple weeks ago. Last year about 1,800 people renounced their US citizenship or handed in their Green Cards, which is a record high since the IRS started publishing the number in 1998, and eight times more than in 2008. The number one reason was over taxes.

A big part of me wishes those people had stayed and simply refused to pay the taxes, but I understand why they didn’t.  The fact is for the 6.3 million Americans living abroad US citizenship is a liability, not a privilege, but if things keep going like they’re going, being off American soil is going to be the real advantage.

The United States is one of the only countries to demand income tax from its citizens living abroad, which means it requires them to disclose foreign accounts to the IRS, including joint accounts with spouses and children that aren’t US citizens, anyone they go into business with and accounts for corporations they own a controlling interest in. If they don’t report they face penalties up to $100,000 or 50 percent of their undeclared accounts, whichever is larger. Plus, according to the Vide President at the American Bankers Association, Francisca N. Mordi, Banks in Europe, have begun to “drop Americans like hot potatoes,” because “foreign banks are upset enough about IRS regulations that they’re saying they just won’t keep American customers.” And to top it all off, there’s not even a pretense of receiving the services they’re supposedly paying for. Under those conditions renouncing their citizenship is a no-brainer.

But the real question is why are Americans emigrating out of the US in the first place? Well it’s the same reason the founding fathers immigrated here and renounced their English citizenship in the first place, freedom and economic opportunity. In those days, just as today, tax resistance is heroism not sedition.

But get this, not only are American citizens emigrating out of the US and renouncing their citizenship in record numbers, a recent report from the Pew Hispanic Center indicates that the number of Mexican immigrants to the US has dropped, and the number returning home has increased, resulting in a statistical dead heat. The report reads, “the largest wave of immigration in history from a single country to the United States has come to a standstill.” The report attributes the changes largely to the weakened economy. If you don’t see how these two stories are connected, you’re still asleep.

Maybe this will wake you up.

According to the report illegal immigration from Mexico also fell sharply during the last five years. Yet for some reason cracking down on illegal immigration as a political issue has been on the uptick over the last five years. Border security is up. Predator drones now patrol US borders. And people seriously want to build a wall around the whole country. Well Senate Bill 1813 may give you some idea what’s really going on here.

We reported this week that SB 1813, the so-called “Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century Act” would make Black Box event data recorders mandatory in all new cars. Apparently the bill will also “suspend passport rights for delinquent taxpayers.” That’s right, the MAP-21 Act empowers the Federal Government to imprison American citizens within US borders if they owe back taxes.

Do you see yet? Illegal immigration is not the problem. They’re trying to keep the tax cattle on the farm. So, maybe the renouncers have the right idea. I certainly don’t want to be on the plantation when the gate swings closed. But even if you want to leave, keep in mind there’s an “exit tax” too, so you’re not even really free to leave.

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