Free Republic

You remember U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., don’t you? He was the guy who said “the American people don’t care” about the wasteful, pork-barrel spending habits of Congress. He was also the guy who called a flight attendant the “B-word” because she asked him to turn off his cellphone prior to a flight. He was also the guy who told the state of New Jersey how it should spend its own highway funds, much to the displeasure of that state’s very outspoken GOP governor, Chris Christie. Schumer is at it again. This time, he set his sights on Facebook co-founder...

Skip to 7:15 for the key bit. In fairness, he emphasizes that he'll support it only if it's "necessary." There's already an "exit tax" on the books, which Saverin paid, and a separate law that says an expatriate can be barred from re-entering the U.S. if the DOJ determines that he renounced his citizenship for tax purposes. Saverin quit the U.S., evidently with his tax liability in mind, because leaving before the IPO meant the "exit tax" would apply only to the gains on his Facebook shares as of his departure. (It also spared him from a potentially enormous estate...

If you are a nonimmigrant American reading this, do you know why your ancestors came to America? The fact is, a large percentage of immigrants were trying to escape various forms of government persecution, including religious and tax persecution. The American Revolution was set off, in part, by a tax on tea that ranged from about 10 percent to 33 percent of its value. That and other grievances were enough to cause people to take up arms against the British. Rather than taking up arms, most people who believe the tax burden now has become too great pick up and...

The Ex-Patriot Act introduced by Senators Chuck Schumer and Bob Casey is a bill of attainder which would result in cruel and unusual punishment. Eduardo Saverin's renunciation of U.S. citizenship has angered many people in the United States. I write as one who has also relinquished U.S. citizenship. As a blogger who openly writes about the experience, I've attracted some media attention, including an article by Dow Jones columnist Al Lewis. Lewis starts by saying that I renounced my citizenship to avoid the IRS. So now, Saverin and I have joined the ranks of the most hated people in America...

House Speaker John Boehner has become the latest politician to attack Facebook billionaire Eduardo Saverin for ditching his U.S. citizenship to avoid paying tax. Speaking on ABC's This Week, Mr Boehner labelled the move 'absolutely outrageous' and said he would support legislation to stop wealthy expats relocating to dodge tax. Mr Saverin, who pocketed more than $2billion when the social-networking site listed on the stock exchange on Friday, could avoid paying hundreds of millions of dollars in U.S. taxes after he relocated to Singapore.

Did you know the government publishes a quarterly list of every individual who renounces his or her citizenship? The Wall Street Journal's infographics team decided to crunch the data and came up with a chart tracking the growth of how many Americans no longer wish to be so. The results are fairly striking:  WSJ.com The accompanying article by Laura Sanders notes that in 2010, Congress passed a law requiring foreign financial institutions to certify that U.S. taxpayers aren't hiding money in them as a condition for being allowed to do business here.

Facebook co-founder Eduardo Saverin, under fire over the tax consequences of renouncing his U.S. citizenship, said on Thursday he is obligated to and will pay 'hundreds of millions of dollars in taxes to the United States government.' The social media entrepreneur and investor said in a statement, emailed to Reuters by a spokesman, that his decision to move to Singapore was 'based solely on my interest in working and living' there.

“Is the rich world aware of how four billion of the six billion live? If we were aware, we would want to help out, we’d want to get involved.” – Bill Gates _____________________________ Dear Eduardo Saverin (if I may call you that), You were, as I’m sure you’re aware, born in Brazil to a wealthy family, and were moved to Miami when you were a child. To America, the land of opportunity. And boy, did you ever have a lot of opportunities. Your parents sent you to Harvard, where according to Wikipedia you “took advantage of Brazil’s lax insider trading...

When Brazilian-born entrepreneur Eduardo Saverin, one of the founders of Facebook, renounced his U.S. citizenship, allegedly to avoid paying millions -- or is it billions -- in taxes ahead of the company's Initial Public Offering, there was plenty of indignation. Saverin was blessed with an upscale Miami upbringing, a top-notch Harvard education, and has thrived in an entrepreneurial environment created by Americans, becoming insanely rich during the Internet boom. So the question is: What does Saverin owe the United States? Is it reprehensible for him to drop his citizenship before paying his “fair” share to the government that made all...

<p>Facebook co-founder Eduardo Saverin, who moved to the United States at age 13 in order to escape being kidnapped by Brazilian gangs, has been in the news this week for renouncing his American citizenship in order to dodge taxes on his Facebook stock. He’s headed to Singapore to keep being rich in a place where he’s (a) safe, (b) can speak English, and (c) doesn’t have to pay a capital gains tax.</p>

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...