422% Fee Increase To Renounce Citizenship Yields Millions, With Exits Up 560%

Forbes: It is odd that the U.S. is making millions from Americans tossing their passports. The government has collected about $12.6 million in fees just since the fall of 2014, after hiking its fee to renounce citizenship by 422%, according to CNNMoney. The fee to renounce is now $2,350. Even so, Americans are expatriating in record numbers. There are now 18 times as many renouncers as in 2008. Some write why they gave up their U.S. citizenship.

In all, the number of Americans renouncing U.S. citizenship has gone up 560% from its Bush administration high. In 2015, there were approximately 4,300 expatriations according to the published names of individuals who renounced. The name and shame list is published quarterly, with the most recent three-month total being 1,058. That brings the total to 4,279 for 2015...

Previously, there was a $450 fee to renounce, and no fee to relinquish. But the precise difference between the two procedures was often confused. Presently, the $2,350 fee is supposed to apply to both. That was a hike from $450 to $2,350 for renouncing, and an even steeper hike–from zero to $2,350–for relinquishment. The U.S. State Department said raising the fee was about demand and paperwork, but American expatriations are still growing after the increase.

If the administration thought a fee avoidance would decrease the amount of tax payers leaving, the raising of the fees has not worked.

Meanwhile a student changed his name to avoid an airline change booking fee.

Armstrong... changed his name to West for free and drove to Liverpool to rush through a new passport for £103... Armstrong said: “Her stepdad got my name from Facebook but I had put it as Adam West as a joke, because he was the actor who played Batman on TV. 

“Ryanair were not helpful at all. We showed them we were not trying to change the person, just the name, but they wouldn’t back down.