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Comment by thematt | Hacker News Reader

For those that do terminate their citizenship, what is the most common country they choose to live in afterwards? In other words, where is the grass perceived to be greener?

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Most of my clients end up in high tax countries. Europe. Canada. NZ or Australia.

Makes you question the knee-jerk bias, doesn't it?

How do people tend to find the move after 2-3 years?

I have people come in who want to rant about America going to hell. They want out. I tell them they should go live somewhere for a few years to be sure they want to cancel the passport. Your point is dead on.

I haven't heard any complaints from the people I have worked with, though.

At least with some of those countries, if you're gonna be forced to pay taxes anyway, you might as well get more for your money like healthcare...

Is a shame this wasn't explored more in the article. The headline would make you think that this is about people leaving to pay less tax.

Perhaps a more accurate title would have been;

"Bureaucratic Paperwork Prompts More Americans to Renounce Citizenship

It's more like if you live overseas, it's expensive to pay double taxes. So some people are renouncing citizenship partly to pay less tax, not just to avoid paperwork.

Some people are leaving partly to pay more tax. Sometimes the spiral downwards of paying less tax can be bad for society. eg raises poverty line.

But you don't pay double tax on overseas earnings unless the overseas country requires you to pay less tax than in the US as long as you file the tax return, or at least that was what was written in the article as far as I could tell, so the only people paying more are doing so by not filing and being fined.

What countries would you recommend your clients to go to?

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