News flash: I am quoted in the Globe and Mail on this issue.
More and more Americans are renouncing their
citizenship - Almost 8 times as many as were doing it back in
the late 90s.
Until 2010, doing this was free. Then the State Department
brought in a fee of US$450 to cover the cost of the service. This fee is being raised to $2,350, effective
September 12, 2014.
Given the Department has a mandate to charge fees to roughly
cover the costs of its services, I suppose this was reasonable.
However, the Department at the time indicated that the fee was less
than ¼ of the cost.
The Department has indicated that "there is no public
benefit or other reason for setting this fee below cost." Fair
enough – what does the U.S. have to gain from more
renunciations, except fewer tax returns to process?
