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Derek Sivers Renounces his US Citizenship

federalregister.gov

41–50 of 178 posts

Re: Derek Sivers Renounces his US Citizenship

#41
post #18
post #12

As someone who holds three nationalities, and is 2 years away from a fourth: I look forward to the day I hold none. Beligerence of the "State" knows no bounds, I hope we can free ourselves from this regressive construct and, once again, live in this world judged by our own merit and character, beholden to none.

Mind sharing which one you're pursuing or which ones you think are worthy nationalities to hold?

Be a U.S. citizen but don't live there. That is the best option of them all, and one I took.

Re: Derek Sivers Renounces his US Citizenship

#42

Does anyone know why? Tax purposes, political protest, or what? Also: it's funny that the government misspells the acronym of their own law, HIPAA.

I think the problem is in the tax law. Even if you live abroad, you have to produce a tax declaration of your worldwide income. Check this site: http://www.taxmeless.com/page4.html

So it seems the only way to not do this is renouncing citizenship.

Re: Derek Sivers Renounces his US Citizenship

#43
post #27

I find it more interesting that this publication of names is part of HIPPA. I really wish each piece of legislation was restricted to small units of scope.

Anything significant requires a lot of compromises in the legislature. It makes sense to put all the compromises in one bill so they can all be passed at once. Otherwise after a few pieces had been passed, the other legislators could reneg on their parts.

I could be wrong, but I believe a Schulze method would solve that. The compromises could remain independent pieces which pass or don't pass depending on a preference matrix.

Re: Derek Sivers Renounces his US Citizenship

#44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Mind listing out the countries, and how one goes about becoming a citizenship collector? My parents sacrificed an incredible deal to come to the US. For the life of me I can't comprehend why someone would do this. Loss of citizenship is permanent. Your kids lose it as well. Why would derek would do this to his kids.

His wife has dual citizenships in the U.S./India.

India does not allow dual citizenships. Rather people of Indian origin get the equivalent of a lifetime visa should they choose to be citizens of other countries, but this can be in no way equated with citizenship.

Re: Derek Sivers Renounces his US Citizenship

#45
post #21

The US Tax Code incents US citizens to drop their citizenship before they have 2M USD in net worth. http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/26/877

At best, you're referring only to US expatriates. The article you linked does not apply to people living in the US at all. Also, political innuendo aside, Sivers doesn't mention tax avoidance in his reasons for moving to Singapore: http://sivers.org/singapore

Assuming it's true that he's dodging taxes, why would he want to rub everyone's noses in it? I wouldn't expect it to be a particularly well received blog post for example, not to mention potentially endangering his ability to successfully expatriate - since I believe you are not 'officially' allowed to do so for tax reasons.

Re: Derek Sivers Renounces his US Citizenship

#46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Mind listing out the countries, and how one goes about becoming a citizenship collector? My parents sacrificed an incredible deal to come to the US. For the life of me I can't comprehend why someone would do this. Loss of citizenship is permanent. Your kids lose it as well. Why would derek would do this to his kids.

His wife has dual citizenships in the U.S./India.

My wife is Indian with US citizenship. As far as we've been able to tell, India does not allow dual citizenship (a quick google turns up many references to this, including Wikipedia). An Indian who becomes a US citizen can become an "Overseas Citizen of India" (OCI) which is not exactly the same as citizenship (you can't vote in India on that status, for example)

Re: Derek Sivers Renounces his US Citizenship

#47
post #12

As someone who holds three nationalities, and is 2 years away from a fourth: I look forward to the day I hold none. Beligerence of the "State" knows no bounds, I hope we can free ourselves from this regressive construct and, once again, live in this world judged by our own merit and character, beholden to none.

The idealogically pure idea of stateless citizens working in harmony of their own free accord is a fantasy that doesn't mesh with reality and just as dangerous as any Marxist Communist fantasy. In the right here and right now states are far from perfect, and we are in the middle of a period where lots of forces are pushing for greater consolidation of power in the hands of the state. But the benefit of having governments (some of them at least) still outweighs the extreme dangers of not having them.

Re: Derek Sivers Renounces his US Citizenship

#48

Does anyone know why? Tax purposes, political protest, or what? Also: it's funny that the government misspells the acronym of their own law, HIPAA.

There's been talk recently of wealthy americans fleeing the country for tax reasons. If Obama gets reelected, as is expected, he's gonna go all out in his second term (I'm an Obama supporter but I dislike the idea of taxing the entrepreneurs more to fund the lazy government workers).

> I'm an Obama supporter but I dislike the idea of taxing the entrepreneurs more to fund the lazy government workers

So is that like a very mild dislike or something? Otherwise, that sentence makes zero sense.

Re: Derek Sivers Renounces his US Citizenship

#49

Does anyone know why? Tax purposes, political protest, or what? Also: it's funny that the government misspells the acronym of their own law, HIPAA.

There's been talk recently of wealthy americans fleeing the country for tax reasons. If Obama gets reelected, as is expected, he's gonna go all out in his second term (I'm an Obama supporter but I dislike the idea of taxing the entrepreneurs more to fund the lazy government workers).

Thats it, Derek Sivers is renouncing his citizenship so his hard earned money doesn't go to lazy people like school teachers and firefighters.

Re: Derek Sivers Renounces his US Citizenship

#50
post #41
post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Mind sharing which one you're pursuing or which ones you think are worthy nationalities to hold?

Be a U.S. citizen but don't live there. That is the best option of them all, and one I took.

Why not be Canadian and not live in the USA?
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