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GOODBYE, AMERICA: Billionaire Facebook Cofounder Renounces Citizenship (Your taxes are not for me)
Business Insider ^ | 05/11/2012 | Nicholas Carlson

Posted on 05/11/2012 2:24:03 PM PDT by SeekAndFind

Billionaire Facebook cofounder Eduardo Saverin is renouncing his citizenship ahead of the company's IPO at the end of next week.

Saverin is the cofounder who got booted from the company WAY back in 2005. They made a movie about it.

His 4 percent stake is worth about $4 billion and he's going to save a boatload on taxes with the move.

Singapore, where Saverin lives, does not have a capital gains tax.

He will have to pay an exit tax on his holdings, but it will be at Facebook's valuation now, not after the IPO.

“Eduardo recently found it more practical to become a resident of Singapore since he plans to live there for an indefinite period of time,” Tom Goodman, a spokesman for Saverin, tells Bloomberg's Danielle Kucera, Sanat Vallikappen and Christine Harper.

Mostly, Saverin got in the way of Facebook's early development. At one point, he froze the company's bank account because he wasn't getting enough attention. Still, he was its first outside investor. And for that, insiders have described him as one of the most important people in company history.

(Excerpt) Read more at businessinsider.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Culture/Society; Government; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: citizenship; eduardosaverin; expats; facebook; facebookipo; loveitorleaveit; renouncecitizenship; tax; taxes
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"Your taxes are not for me."

1 posted on 05/11/2012 2:24:09 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
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To: SeekAndFind
He will have to pay an exit tax on his holdings, but it will be at Facebook's valuation now, not after the IPO.

Or so he hopes. The IRS is big on re-evaluations. I doubt he can miss the IPO by a week and get the bargain valuation. But, I read elsewhere he applied for this last year, before the IPO was imminent.

2 posted on 05/11/2012 2:27:17 PM PDT by Pearls Before Swine
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To: SeekAndFind

RE: His 4 percent stake is worth about $4 billion and he’s going to save a boatload on taxes with the move.

____________________

Actually it isn’t as simple as that. The IRS might demand that you pay taxes that you owe them before you can successfully renounce citizenship.

And I’m not sure leaving America for the still in effect, one party ruled Singapore (where the press is not free ) is a good idea.


3 posted on 05/11/2012 2:28:25 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
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To: SeekAndFind

He can come back here anytime. The authorities don’t care about non-citizens entering this country.

It’s the citizens who are prosecuted.


4 posted on 05/11/2012 2:30:28 PM PDT by a fool in paradise (Barack Obama has cut and run from what he called "the right war".)
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To: SeekAndFind

I agree with Eduardo. I’d be nothing but a cloud of dust too if I had any money. I remember those old “(_______) Is For Lovers” bumperstickers. We need a new one. “America Is For Freeloaders”.


5 posted on 05/11/2012 2:31:06 PM PDT by FlingWingFlyer (Dumb, dependent and Democrat is no way to go through life. - Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-Texas)
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To: SeekAndFind

My God, how old is that guy? 12? I gotta get into this startup biz. I came up with a great idea for a website the other day where people can sell their junk in an auction format. Whoever bids the highest wins. I call it Auctionbay. Pretty cool huh?


6 posted on 05/11/2012 2:32:24 PM PDT by GrandJediMasterYoda (Some day our schools will teach the difference between "lose" and "loose")
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To: SeekAndFind
And I’m not sure leaving America for the still in effect, one party ruled Singapore (where the press is not free ) is a good idea.

Well... for you and me. I think it's a good idea for him.

7 posted on 05/11/2012 2:33:33 PM PDT by UCANSEE2 (Lame and ill-informed post)
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To: SeekAndFind

Good think he didn’t get dual citizenship in Switzerland or the leftists would go nuts posting obscene comments about him on newspaper websites.


8 posted on 05/11/2012 2:34:49 PM PDT by TurboZamboni (Looting the future to bribe the present)
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To: GrandJediMasterYoda

RE: I came up with a great idea for a website the other day where people can sell their junk in an auction format. Whoever bids the highest wins

Doesn’t eBay already provide this facility?


9 posted on 05/11/2012 2:35:16 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
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To: GrandJediMasterYoda
came up with a great idea for a website the other day where people can sell their junk in an auction format.

Did you also invent the question mark?

10 posted on 05/11/2012 2:36:06 PM PDT by dfwgator (Don't wake up in a roadside ditch. Get rid of Romney.)
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To: SeekAndFind

Good for him (even if the green tie doesn’t go with that blue shirt and the collar from another shirt)! Who wouldn’t do the same in his pair of Florsheims.

Will the U.S. gummint hear? Don’t kid me, remember when John Templeton renounced U.S. citizenship? We’ve been hearing about reforming the tax code at least since then.


11 posted on 05/11/2012 2:37:28 PM PDT by Revolting cat! (Let us prey!)
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To: SeekAndFind

“The IRS might demand that you pay taxes that you owe them before you can successfully renounce citizenship.”

No “might” about it. He renounced his citizenship in 2011 and it was just noticed on the IRS lists for April. The IRS has already gotten their pound of flesh. The “Exit Tax” treats all assets held as though they were sold at the time renunciation is granted. That means the IRS had to agree with the valuation of his shares last Sept when he applied, or the application wouldn’t have been approved. I doubt the IRS has the option to get more money out of him just because his shares went up in value after the IRS “virtually sold” them. The shares could go down in value, after all, especially since analysts are saying the IPO has been wildly overvalued, and the IRS isn’t going to refund the difference either.


12 posted on 05/11/2012 2:38:47 PM PDT by Kellis91789 (The ultimate result of shielding men from the effects of folly is to fill the world with fools.)
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To: SeekAndFind
one party ruled Singapore

Yeah, leaving one one party state for another one party state!

13 posted on 05/11/2012 2:40:03 PM PDT by Revolting cat! (Let us prey!)
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To: SeekAndFind

He is....er...let me think.....oh yes, that’s it.

He’s liberal.

Notice the trend...”What’s mine is mine, but you really should pay more taxes.”

I think about as much about him as I do about Facebook.


14 posted on 05/11/2012 2:41:01 PM PDT by Da Coyote
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To: dfwgator
LOL!! No, but a friend of mine, a Dr. Alan Parsons, is working on a frickin' laser beam that will destroy earth. So that is why I call it "The Alan Parsons Project".


15 posted on 05/11/2012 2:41:24 PM PDT by GrandJediMasterYoda (Some day our schools will teach the difference between "lose" and "loose")
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To: Revolting cat!

RE: Yeah, leaving one one party state for another one party state!

By one party state (in the USA), are you referring to California or the USA?


16 posted on 05/11/2012 2:43:34 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
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To: SeekAndFind

Good for him.

He felt the crash into the iceberg and knew the Titanic was sinking. He packed his bags and left to avoid going down with the ship.


17 posted on 05/11/2012 2:45:58 PM PDT by GatĂșn(CraigIsaMangoTreeLawyer)
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To: GrandJediMasterYoda

“Whoever bids the highest wins. I call it Auctionbay. Pretty cool huh?”

Yahoo Auctions beat you to the punch ;-).


18 posted on 05/11/2012 2:47:28 PM PDT by edh (I need a better tagline)
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To: Revolting cat!

RE: Don’t kid me, remember when John Templeton renounced U.S. citizenship? We’ve been hearing about reforming the tax code at least since then.

You know, I’ve been thinking about this whole tax business and it occurred to me that the US government is going about this the wrong way.

If you want money to come flowing IN to the US, you have to COMPETE with the likes of Switzerland, the Cayman’s and Singapore.

Why not do as they do and make our tax code MORE GENEROUS and ATTRACTIVE to guys like Eduardo to keep their money here instead of making it more onerous so that they would leave?

If you really want to break the stranglehold of Switzerland, COMPETE with the banking and tax laws of Switzerland instead of hiring armies of IRS agents to harass law abiding citizens and confiscate what they earn worldwide.


19 posted on 05/11/2012 2:48:47 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
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To: TurboZamboni

“Good think he didn’t get dual citizenship in Switzerland or the leftists would go nuts posting obscene comments about him on newspaper websites.”

Or leftist right here on FR.


20 posted on 05/11/2012 2:49:04 PM PDT by GatĂșn(CraigIsaMangoTreeLawyer)
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