Free Republic

A year ago, in Action Comics, Superman declared plans to renounce his U.S. citizenship. "'Truth, justice, and the American way' - it's not enough anymore," the comic book superhero said, after both the Iranian and American governments criticized him for joining a peaceful anti-government protest in Tehran. Last year, almost 1,800 people followed Superman's lead, renouncing their U.S. citizenship or handing in their Green Cards. That's a record number since the Internal Revenue Service began publishing a list of those who renounced in 1998. It's also almost eight times more than the number of citizens who renounced in 2008, and...

According to the latest Internal Revenue Service report, the number of Americans renouncing their U.S. citizenship (or terminating their long-term permanent residency) has increased nearly ninefold since 2008. In the first quarter alone, 499 Americans expatriated through the IRS, meaning they probably won’t have to pay U.S. taxes anymore, according to data that first appeared on Andrew Mitchel’s International Tax Blog. That compares with a quarterly average of 384 in 2010. And 2010 marked a significant jump from 2009 and 2008, with quarterly averages of 186 and 58, respectively. -----SNIP----- One argument is that they are leaving because of President...

Just when New Zealand seemed like the place to move, with the centre-right government, "considering cutting income tax rates," and all, and the European Union comes out with a proposal that makes it hard to chose where expatriates should go when fleeing the US. Americans used to think that life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness encompassed the basis for human rights and now the European Union confuses the issue by declaring, "traveling a human right."  That's right, we can now add traveling to the list directly behind the right to universal health care. The EU is so dedicated...

Norwegian Oyvind Aamot says his first memory in life was speaking Chinese on a train in China at age 27. He didn't realize he was on a train, that he was speaking Chinese or that he was a foreigner. He didn't know what any of these things meant. He also didn't remember who he was, where he came from or anything about his identity or past. "People would point to me and call me a waiguoren (foreigner), and I'd say, 'OK, I'm a waiguoren', but I didn't know what that concept meant," Aamot says in an articulate manner, which doesn't...

Bad times at home keep English teachers here June 15, 2009 Alexis Cuperus, an American living in Korea, says she won’t be going home this year, and maybe not the next year either. Teaching English in the city of Jinju, South Gyeongsang, Cuperus had planned to head back to school and seek her teacher licensure in Texas next March. But, like many expatriates here, fear of sinking into debt without a job to help dig her out have led her to re-evaluate. “I’m definitely in the boat of many English teachers in South Korea,” she says. As North America continues...

That is why judges toss out certain cases -- because the plaintiffs weren't able to show they suffered concrete harm. That was the circumstance when an Internet-fueled rumor sparked several lawsuits seeking to bar Honolulu-born Barack Obama from the presidency because the plaintiffs doubted he was, as the Constitution requires, "a natural-born citizen." In dismissing one such suit, Judge R. Barclay Surrick, of federal district court in Philadelphia, said an aim of the standing doctrine is to prevent courts from deciding questions "where the harm is too vague." He observed that a disgruntled voter who suffered no individual harm "would...

Senator from Massachusetts, USA, John Kerry, right and on the large screen, wipes his eye while speaking during a session 'The Future of the Middle East' at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Saturday Jan. 27, 2007. Kerry criticized the Bush administration's foreign policy during the session, saying it has caused the United States to become 'a sort of international pariah.' From left to right Turkey's Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul, Egypt's Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif, Iraq's Vice-President Adil abd al-Mahdi, Moderator David Ignatius, and Former President of Iran Mohammad Khatami. (AP Photo/Virginia Mayo)

LOS ANGELES Many expatriate Mexicans who supported presidential winner Felipe Calderon weren't celebrating Thursday. Instead, they worried that the refusal of leftist candidate Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador's to accept the official results could spark violent protests back home. "Calderon might have won, but the people have lost," said Roxana Escarcega, 35, a massage therapist in Los Angeles who cast an absentee ballot for Calderon. "Many won't trust the results, and that could create problems." Absentee voting was low among expatriates, who were allowed to cast ballots for the first time in a presidential election. More than 58 percent supported Calderon,...

Retired Army Col. David Hackworth, a decorated Vietnam veteran who spoke out against the war and later became a journalist and an advocate for military reform, died Wednesday in Mexico, where he was receiving treatment for bladder cancer, his wife said. He was 74. "He died in my arms yesterday morning," his wife, Eilhys England, said Thursday. Hackworth, a syndicated columnist for King Features, advocated a streamlined military and improved conditions for troops.

That was quite an extraordinary statement yesterday by incoming Spanish prime minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero. First, he gave the lie to those wishful Americans who have suggested that Zapatero and his voters wished only to appease jihadi terrorism in Iraq while stoutly resisting jihadi terrorism everywhere else: “Fighting terrorism with bombs, with Tomahawk missiles, isn't the way to beat terrorism, but the way to generate more radicalism.” Well of course there’s nobody, least of all in the Bush administration, who thinks that bombs and Tomahawks alone are right way to fight terrorism. And indeed, if the Bush administration did...

Terrorism has won a mighty victory in Spain. The culprits who detonated those bombs of murder on 3/11 intended to use murder to alter the course of Spanish democracy – and they have succeeded. In the months since the attacks on the World Trade Center attacks, we have all heard – and ourselves often repeated – much brave talk about how terror cannot prevail, how justice must inevitably win through, etc. etc. etc. The news from Spain suggests how very wrong those hopes were. People are not always strong. Sometimes they indulge false hopes that by lying low, truckling, appeasing,...

FEB. 29, 2004: PASSIONATA Early Thoughts on the Passion On the Other Hand On the other hand, I have to say I was very disturbed by something Gibson said in his interview with Peggy Noonan in Reader’s Digest. Gibson’s father is of course a notorious Holocaust denier and trafficker in anti-Semitic conspiracy theories. Noonan offered Mel Gibson an opportunity to separate himself from his father’s views. Here is Gibson’s reply: “I have friends and parents of friends who have numbers on their arms. The guy who taught me Spanish was a Holocaust survivor. He worked in a concentration camp in...

Maybe some of you worldly, travelled FReepers can give your nickels' worth of free advice. I am seriously thinking of expatriation. So far I have started research on New Zealand and Philippines. I speak English only, don't have too much money (enough for plane fare and a couple of months of living), am not married and do not have kids. My goal is to find a place where the nanny laws and taxes aren't as high, and the culture is less commercial and more easy-going. HELP!

Expatriates. You see them in back-street bars of Bangkok, Manila, Guadalajara, along third-world waterfronts, in up-country Thailand, anywhere living is cheap and rules scarce. Some are old guys in their sixties and seventies with fading tattoos from other lives, lives that also fade into fewer and fewer living memories. Some are in their thirties and run little businesses, often legitimate. They are a bit rough-looking or maybe just eccentric, congenitally what they are and not concerned about what you think of them. You find them heisting a brewski in out-of-the-way spots, chaffing with the barmaids who maybe or may not...

Setting the Story Straight: The Truth About Corporate Inversions BY: Grover Norquist and Damon AnsellDATE: May 15, 2003SECTION: WORD COUNT: 1066For a PDF version of this document, please click here. Several Members of Congress have recently proposed offsetting the tax cuts in the Bush Economic Growth Package with something they are referring to as "revenue raisers." Unfortunately, despite the rosy image that these Members have attempted to create, the revenue raisers are, in fact, nothing more than a list of unjustifiable and unethical tax increases. One of the intended targets of the new legislation is the practice of corporate inversion....

Australia protests after expatriate flogged in Saudi Arabia SYDNEY March 5 - Australian Prime Minister John Howard lashed out Wednesday at Saudi Arabia's ``appallingly inhumane'' treatment of a middle-aged Melbourne man jailed and flogged for a crime he did not commit. Foreign affairs officials have already protested to Saudi Arabia about its treatment of hospital technician Robert Thomas, 55, who was arrested last June and jailed for a theft allegedly committed by his Filipina wife, Lorna. She denied a charge of stealing hospital equipment, but was convicted and, under Saudi Arabia's strict system of Islamic justice, Thomas was held to...

Bush co. went offshore Harken Energy set up Caymans subsidiary in '89 By TIMOTHY J. BURGER DAILY NEWS WASHINGTON BUREAU WASHINGTON - Harken Energy Corp. set up an offshore subsidiary in the Cayman Islands tax haven while President Bush sat on Harken's board of directors in 1989, the Daily News has learned. The revelation comes as Republican lawmakers are roundly criticizing the practice of U.S. companies setting up offshore subsidiaries, usually to skirt American disclosure laws or corporate income taxes on foreign income.Even White House spokesman Ari Fleischer condemned the tactic yesterday, saying, "The President is concerned about corporations in...

<p>With major corporate responsibility legislation passed, elected officials are turning to a new target -- business tax evaders -- in a scramble to convince voters they are cracking down on corporate wrongdoing.</p> <p>Senate hearings today will touch on the topic, but House members got a head start last week. First, they overwhelmingly approved a corporate responsibility bill drafted largely by Senate Democrats. Then, while debating a less-noticed provision in the president's homeland security proposal, 110 Republican members defied their party's leaders to confront another brand of questionable corporate behavior: companies locating overseas to escape U.S. taxes.</p>

US Taxpatriates Compiled by the Internal Revenue ServiceThe following links are to the US Government's official lists of Taxpatriates, as compiled quarterly by the IRS, required under 26 USC 877(a)(1).  Under this law, the people on this list may be taxed for ten years after they renounced their citizenship.  Furthermore. under 8 USC 1182(a)(10)(E)), these persons may not be allowed back into the US for any reason.Even facing these penalties, wealthy US citizens continue to leave the US at an alarming rate.  The following lists show conclusively that the exodus of US citizens and their wealth is continuing.  What these lists...

This should be titled"Democrats Spread Lies About Expatriation" (Note:  I took the liberty of highlighting the BIG LIE in this article.) Democrats Blast Firms Over Offshore Tax BreaksMay 18, 2002 11:15 AM ETWASHINGTON (Reuters) - Democrats on Saturday said U.S. companies seeking to avoid paying millions of dollars in taxes by moving their headquarters to offshore tax havens were "unpatriotic" and called for legislation to stop the practice."The tax dodgers may set up paper headquarters in Bermuda, but they continue operating in the United States," said Rep. Jim Maloney of Connecticut in the weekly Democratic radio address."They still receive...

May 15, 2002, 7:40AM Cooper shareholders back shift to BermudaBy NELSON ANTOSH Copyright 2002 Houston Chronicle Note:  I highlighted certain words and phrases in bold for later reference. Shareholders of Cooper Industries, one of Houston's largest manufacturing companies, voted 9-to-1 Tuesday to change its place of incorporation from Ohio to Bermuda. With no remaining regulatory hurdles, Cooper expects to be a Bermuda company as soon as possible after the close of business May 21. Cooper is one of several Houston companies reincorporating in Bermuda or the Cayman Islands, primarily to save on income taxes. It is a $4.2 billion-per-year company...

Cooper OKs Bermuda Reincorporation HOUSTON (AP) - Shareholders of a Houston-based manufacturer of electrical products, tools and hardware voted Tuesday to reincorporate the company in Bermuda. Cooper Industries Inc., which is incorporated in Ohio, said the reincorporation offers strategic advantages not available under the company's current structure. Plans for the reincorporation first were announced in February after hand tool maker Danaher Corp. backed away from purchasing Cooper.Cooper counts Crescent wrenches and pliers among its brands.``This change will enhance Cooper's strategic flexibility and our reduced global tax position will significantly increase cash flow - enabling us to further strengthen our balance...

<p>So now Stanley Works wants to move to Bermuda. Fed up with spiraling taxes, the Connecticut toolmaker says it's had enough.</p> <p>And a lot of people are coming down hard on old Stanley, including Connecticut's attorney general, who got the company to hold off for now, pending a legal challenge. He's mad at old Stanley.</p>

Distributed nationally on the Knight-Ridder Tribune wire Bad Tax Policy: You Can Run…By Daniel J. MitchellThe worst Supreme Court decision of all time? One of the leading candidates has to be the infamous 1857 Dred Scott decision, in which the Supreme Court ruled that slaves did not gain freedom by escaping to non-slave states. Instead, they were considered property and had to be returned to their "owners." Some U.S. companies soon may be treated in a similar manner, thanks to legislation being touted by Sens. Max Baucus, D-Mont., and Charles Grassley, R-Iowa. It all starts with the internal revenue...

For Immediate Release Tuesday, March 12, 2002202-285-0244 www.freedomandprosperity.orgTax Reform, not Fiscal Protectionism, is the Right Response to Corporate Flight: CFP Reiterates Call for Territorial Taxation Washington (March 12, 2002) – The Center for Freedom and Prosperity, the nation's leader in the fight for international tax competition, announced today that it will vigorously resist all legislation to restrict the freedom of companies to locate in jurisdictions that have more attractive tax and regulatory environments. Andrew Quinlan, President of the Center, remarked, "Fiscal protectionism is bad policy, and the Center for Freedom and Prosperity will oppose and work vigorously to defeat any legislation...

APRIL 26, 14:48 ET U.S. Companies Rush to Go OffshoreBy CURT ANDERSON AP Tax Writer WASHINGTON (AP) — US companies are scrambling to complete tax-cutting relocations of corporate headquarters to offshore sites as momentum builds in Congress to stop the trickle before it becomes a flood. AP/Al Behrman Workers at the Internal Revenue Service Center in Covington, Ky., sort many of the thousands of tax returns arriving at the center's mail room Monday, April 14, 1997. One company, Leucadia National Corp. — a New York-based holding company whose subsidiaries include Empire Group insurance, plastic manufacturing and American Investment Bank —...

April 18, 2002, 8:30 a.m.Bermuda StraightGovernment greed is causing corporate flight. By Veronique de Rugy As an oppressed French taxpayer, I finally decided to move to the United States. No American ever blamed me for my move. And everyone I have met recognizes that this effort to improve my living standards does not mean I hate my home country. Yet when U.S. firms re-incorporate in low-tax jurisdictions like Bermuda because the U.S. internal revenue code kept them at a competitive disadvantage, we are told that it's because they are "greedy" and "unpatriotic." And politicians are trying to hinder competitive relocations...

At the risk of being labeled an extremist, I send you this list of undisputed facts regarding the history of Palestine. While I watch the American media distort the facts of what is going on recently in the occupied territories, I send you this information in the hope that you will re-evaluate your viewpoint and ask yourself the following questions: Why do UN resolutions only apply when the US wants them to? For example, we need to bomb Iraq because Saddam Hussein will not comply with the resolutions, while Israel can completely ignore the recently passed resolutions 1402 and 1403...