Americans who renounced citizenship sue US over ‘astronomical’ fees – By Ed Pilkington (The Guardian) / Oct 4, 2023
Former Americans who have renounced their citizenship have launched a class-action lawsuit suing the US government for what they argue are exorbitant and unconstitutional costs of relinquishing their passports.
The lawsuit, filed on Wednesday by four renounced US citizens in a federal court in Washington DC, accuses the US of wrongfully profiting from the “astronomical” fee it charges those who voluntarily cease to be Americans. Since 2014, Americans abroad who no longer wish to remain citizens, or who can no longer afford to meet the notoriously onerous US tax demands, have been forced to pay a “renunciation fee” of $2,350.
The fee, the lawsuit claims, is “arbitrary, capricious and illegal because, among other things, it was used to fund governmental functions completely unrelated to renunciation services in violation of federal law”.
Precise numbers are not known, but it is thought that there are 5 million to 9 million US citizens living abroad. Some are expatriates who moved for work or in pursuit of a new life, others are “accidental Americans” – they were born in the US, automatically acquiring citizenship, but have never lived in the country for any length of time.
CONTINUE > https://www.yahoo.com/news/americans-renounced-citizenship-sue-us-130044090.html
