From: PeterL on
On Jul 7, 9:02 am, Earl Evleth <evl...(a)wanadoo.fr> wrote:
> (CNN) -- Get ready to open your wallet a little wider to satisfy your travel
> bug: It is soon going to cost more to apply for a new U.S. passport or renew
> an old one -- a move criticized by the public and some lawmakers.
>
> Starting next Tuesday, adults applying for their first passport book will
> have to pay $135 -- a 35 percent increase from the current $100 fee.
> (The cost of the wallet-size passport card, which Americans can use on
> certain trips closer to home, is rising from $45 to $55 for first-time
> applicants.)
>
> Want to add more visa pages to your passport book? It's free now, but you
> will have to shell out $82 under the new fee schedule.
> The renewal fee for passport books will rise to $110 -- up from the current
> $75.
>
> There's even a new fee if you'd like formally to renounce your U.S.
> citizenship -- it costs nothing now, but the price tag will be $450 starting
> Tuesday.
>
> (the French runs 85 euros)
>
> ***
>
> The $450 to renounce! I wonder why so much? I would think would could
> just send one's passport in to the Statement Department along with
> a written declaration, "I'm quitting".  So one stops paying US Taxes
> and only pays the inheritance tax in the country one does have citizenship.


The $450 was just the start of the cost. US don't want people to
escape taxes by renouncing citizenships. In order to renounce US
citizenship, aside from the $450 initial cost, one has to pay capital
gains taxes on all holdings as though all stocks and real estates were
sold, immediately. Plus, one has to continue to pay US income tax for
the next 10 years.
From: BP killed my turtle on
On Jul 7, 6:19 pm, John Rennie <john-ren...(a)talktalk.net> wrote:
> Earl Evleth wrote:
> > (CNN) -- Get ready to open your wallet a little wider to satisfy your travel
> > bug: It is soon going to cost more to apply for a new U.S. passport or renew
> > an old one -- a move criticized by the public and some lawmakers.
>
> > Starting next Tuesday, adults applying for their first passport book will
> > have to pay $135 -- a 35 percent increase from the current $100 fee.
> > (The cost of the wallet-size passport card, which Americans can use on
> > certain trips closer to home, is rising from $45 to $55 for first-time
> > applicants.)
>
> UK Passport cost £77.50 or about $117 and that's the cost of renewing it
> as well as the cost of a first one.
>
> Passport applications have declined by 50% since 2007 -
> must be a recession about.

....and some wars to pay for....
From: Hatunen on
On Wed, 7 Jul 2010 10:22:20 -0700 (PDT), PeterL
<po.ning(a)gmail.com> wrote:

>On Jul 7, 9:02�am, Earl Evleth <evl...(a)wanadoo.fr> wrote:

>> The $450 to renounce! I wonder why so much? I would think would could
>> just send one's passport in to the Statement Department along with
>> a written declaration, "I'm quitting". �So one stops paying US Taxes
>> and only pays the inheritance tax in the country one does have citizenship.
>
>
>The $450 was just the start of the cost. US don't want people to
>escape taxes by renouncing citizenships. In order to renounce US
>citizenship, aside from the $450 initial cost, one has to pay capital
>gains taxes on all holdings as though all stocks and real estates were
>sold, immediately. Plus, one has to continue to pay US income tax for
>the next 10 years.

I can see another dimension to the fee. Some time ago it was made
rather difficult to reonunce your citizenship (unlike earlier
time when the State Depertment could simply cancel your
citizenship because you did something thye didn't like).

People have been able to renounce their citizenship and then try
to reclaim it later; a $450 fee is unlikely to be a big deal to
anyone renouncing to avoid taxes, but it goes a long way toward
providing evidence that you really did mean to renounce if you
come back later and say, "Well, I didn't really mean it."

--
************* DAVE HATUNEN (hatunen(a)cox.net) *************
* Tucson Arizona, out where the cacti grow *
* My typos & mispellings are intentional copyright traps *
From: Earl Evleth on
On 7/07/10 19:22, in article
8cd422d1-0b8f-40f3-8bff-2962fe3dedd6(a)v6g2000prd.googlegroups.com, "PeterL"
<po.ning(a)gmail.com> wrote:

> Plus, one has to continue to pay US income tax for
> the next 10 years.

On paper, in the case I know of the individual had a 10 million
dollar US tax to pay, he walked away from it and essentially
bought his new citizenship in an European country. Being now
a citizen of that country its fiscal service merely ignore the
IRS claim. Yet the 10 yr rule was in their tax treaty with the
US. Rich people have piston.

From: Bill Bonde on
Earl Evleth wrote:
> On 7/07/10 19:22, in article
> 8cd422d1-0b8f-40f3-8bff-2962fe3dedd6(a)v6g2000prd.googlegroups.com, "PeterL"
> <po.ning(a)gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> Plus, one has to continue to pay US income tax for
>> the next 10 years.
>
> On paper, in the case I know of the individual had a 10 million
> dollar US tax to pay, he walked away from it and essentially
> bought his new citizenship in an European country. Being now
> a citizen of that country its fiscal service merely ignore the
> IRS claim. Yet the 10 yr rule was in their tax treaty with the
> US. Rich people have piston.
>
Have piston, will travel?