OFFICIAL "TAXPATRIATION" PAGE

Updates to this page are available at: http://www.frissell.com/taxpat/taxpats.html


BACKGROUND AND ARTICLES

Every quarter since the end of 1996, the US Internal revenue Service has published a list of US citizens who have renounced their citizenship. As of the 2nd quarter of 2001, 3512 names have appeared on this so-called taxpatriate list.

The term taxpatriate may have been invented by a writer for Forbes magazine. Starting in 1994, Forbes has published a series of articles on taxpatriation:

Flight Capital (Avoiding U.S. taxes by renouncing citizenship) Feb 28, 1994

The New Refugees (Americans who give up citizenship to save on taxes) Nov 21, 1994

And Don't Come Back Nov 18, 1996

Your Papers, Please! (Laws affecting people who expatriated to escape US taxes) June 16, 1997

Home Free Jul 26, 1999


William F. Buckley has a good philosophical article about taxpatriates in the National Review: What to Do About the Expatriate? (Wealthy tax evaders) Nov 25, 1996

A reasonably good explanation of the system also appears in a Wall Street Journal article: Renouncing U.S. Citizenship Becomes Harder Than Ever Dec 28, 1998.


IRS LIST OF PEOPLE WHO HAVE EXPATRIATED

Here are the actual lists of everyone who has renounced their US citizenship since the end of 1996. These are links to the electronic edition of the Federal Register.

As the IRS says:

In accordance with the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) of 1996, the IRS publishes "Quarterly Publication of Individuals, Who Have Chosen To Expatriate, as Required by Section 6039G."

Here they are:

Taxpatriate List - 2nd Quarter 2001 (Published September 24, 2001)

Taxpatriate List - 1st Quarter 2001 (Published September 24, 2001)

Taxpatriate List - 4th Quarter 2000 (Published September 24, 2001)

Taxpatriate List - 3rd Quarter 2000

Taxpatriate List - 2nd Quarter 2000 (In which the IRS claims that RBC Reinsurance has renounced its US citizenship. RBC = Royal Bank of Canada)

Taxpatriate List - 1st Quarter 2000

Taxpatriate List - 4th Quarter 1999

Taxpatriate List - 3rd Quarter 1999

Taxpatriate List - 2nd Quarter 1999

Taxpatriate List - 1st Quarter 1999

Taxpatriate List - 4th Quarter 1998

Taxpatriate List - 3rd Quarter 1998

Taxpatriate List - 2nd Quarter 1998 (Corrected March 20, 2000)

Taxpatriate List - 2nd Quarter 1998 (Original)

Taxpatriate List - 1st Quarter 1998 (Not published until September 8, 1999)

Taxpatriate List - 4th Quarter 1997

Taxpatriate List - 3rd Quarter 1997

Taxpatriate List - 2nd Quarter 1997

Taxpatriate List - 1st Quarter 1997

Taxpatriate List - 4th Quarter 1996

If you would prefer a comma delimited database of the list so far…

For those of you who use Palm devices, here is the taxpats list as a JFile database and here it is as MobileDB database.

Someone complained to me about the inconsistent and sloppy typography of these lists. I feel the same way about them but you will have to complain to the IRS. That's the way they come. I have corrected a few obvious errors to produce the database but have otherwise left them untouched.

To search for future lists, search the Federal Register using the term "chosen to expatriate".


PROCESS

If you expatriate yourself you are supposed to fill out IRS form 8854 following the instructions for that form. Basically, the Service wants you to rat out your income and assets at the time of expatriation. If your income is more than $110K per year or your net worth is more than $500K, you are assumed to have expatriated to avoid taxes. In practice, however, the Service has not enforced these provisions. See the article Home Free published in Forbes (as listed above).


And always keep in mind the motto of the expatriate: "You don't have to be nice to nation states you meet on the way up if you're not coming back down!"