Senators to [Facebook co-founder] Saverin: Don't come back... Ever.

[Cossey]

@Ollie

I can’t believe you find any of that relevant.

Additionally, the burden of proof has always been on the taxpayer. Just think about it. I can’t imagine it’s any different anywhere in the world.

So basically what you’re saying is we should allow people to denounce citizenship, disregard billions of dollars of tax revenue on capital earned in the US every year, and then allow them to come back whenever they are done realizing their gains. We should waste well over hundreds of millions of dollars on disproving taxpayers by sifting through trillions of receipts, databases, and private sources in hopes of maybe, just maybe, being able to prove something beyond a reasonable doubt so we might be able enforce tax payments. While doing that, doubling our expenses and losing billions in revenue because of it, we should be going after all the people that we know are abusing the welfare system, the people working under that table and all those illegal immigrants running around because, ya know, we have all this data saved up somewhere somehow. Congratulations, you just ran America into the ground. That’s why nobody gives a fuck where you want your tax dollars to go.

The thing is that you’re also assuming there’s taxes to be paid on the money he’s making. He paid all of the taxes on Facebook’s IPO offering now, on what he’s worth. That’s a part of the process of renouncing US citizenship. Also, Bloomberg estimated by renouncing citizenship, Saverin is only saving about $67M. Not billions (he’s “only” worth about $2.5-3B). Is that significant? Sure, it’s more than either of us are making. But think about the companies that move off-shore every year and the money they’re no longer giving to the country. That’s a bit more significant. The US still allows them to do business here as well.

Also, Singapore does not allow dual-citizenship, which is another reason he’d need to renounce his US citizenship.

The US is also the only major country that taxes based on citizenship rather than residency (And one of two period, with Eritrea doing it as well), . Meaning that if you were a US citizen living in another country, you still pay US taxes (as well as the taxes to that country, I assume).