Ex-PATRIOT Act
Ex-PATRIOT Act
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Ex-PATRIOT Act

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Ex-PATRIOT Act

The Ex-PATRIOT Act was a proposed United States federal law to raise taxes and impose entry bans on certain former citizens and departing permanent residents. The law would automatically classify all people who relinquished U.S. citizenship or permanent residence in the decade prior to the law's passage or any future year as having "tax avoidance intent" if they met certain asset or tax liability thresholds or had failed to file any required federal tax forms within the preceding five years. People determined to have "tax avoidance intent", referred to in the text of the law as specified expatriates, would be affected in two ways. First, they would have to pay 30% capital gains tax on any U.S. property sold after the law's enactment. Second, they would be barred from re-entry into the U.S. either under immigrant or non-immigrant categories.

The Ex-PATRIOT Act was first introduced as S. 3205 in the 112th Congress in 2012 by Senator Chuck Schumer and four co-sponsors, but died in committee. Schumer and two other senators moved similar provisions in the 113th Congress as Senate Amendment 1252 to a major immigration reform bill, but their amendment was not included in the version of the bill that passed the Senate.

The short title of the Ex-PATRIOT Act is a backronym for "Expatriation Prevention by Abolishing Tax-Related Incentives for Offshore Tenancy Act". The long title of the Ex-PATRIOT Act as given in its Section 1 is:

It was sponsored by Chuck Schumer (D-New York) with initial co-sponsors Bob Casey Jr. (D-Pennsylvania), Richard Blumenthal (D-Connecticut), and Tom Harkin (D-Iowa). It was introduced on May 17, 2012, and referred to the Senate Committee on Finance, of which Schumer is a member (on the Subcommittee on Taxation and IRS Oversight, among other subcommittees). Schumer's fellow Subcommittee on Taxation and IRS Oversight member Ben Cardin (D-Maryland) joined as an additional co-sponsor on May 23.

The introduction of the Ex-PATRIOT Act was motivated by the news that Facebook co-founder Eduardo Saverin had renounced his U.S. citizenship. Saverin, a native of Brazil, lived in the U.S. from 1992 to 2009 before moving to Singapore. While living in Singapore, he continued to pay U.S. taxes, as the U.S. is one of the only countries which imposes tax on non-resident citizens. In January 2011, he began the procedure to renounce U.S. citizenship in favor of retaining his existing Brazilian citizenship; he did not apply to take up Singaporean citizenship. His loss of citizenship was effective from September 2011. On April 30, 2012, his name was published in the Quarterly Publication of Individuals Who Have Chosen to Expatriate in the Federal Register as required by the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996. The story was reported in Bloomberg Businessweek and other news outlets roughly ten days later. The Ex-PATRIOT Act bill received additional coverage in July 2012 when it was revealed that singer-songwriter Denise Rich had renounced her citizenship as well. However the Senate Committee on Finance did not take any action on the bill by the end of the session.

On June 12, 2013, Casey moved Senate Amendment 1252 to the Border Security, Economic Opportunity, and Immigration Modernization Act of 2013, a major immigration reform bill. His co-sponsors for the amendment were Schumer and Jack Reed (D-RI). The text of the amendment was identical to that of Schumer's Ex-PATRIOT Act the previous year. In a press release about the amendment, Reed stated, "American citizenship is a privilege. But it seems that a privileged few are trying to game the system by accumulating wealth and benefiting from the greatness of the United States and then renouncing their citizenship to avoid paying their fair share of taxes. They are welcome to leave our country, but they should not be welcomed to return without playing by the rules and paying what they owe." The immigration reform bill passed the Senate on June 27, 2013, without the inclusion of Casey's amendment.

Under current law, 26 U.S.C. § 877A imposes an expatriation tax on "covered expatriates". The term "covered expatriates" is defined in 26 U.S.C. § 877(a)(1) as former citizens or long-term residents whose world-wide assets exceeded $2 million, whose five-year average tax liability exceeded $148,000, or who could not certify that they complied with their U.S. tax obligations for the five years preceding their loss of citizenship. The tax is equivalent to the 15% capital gains tax that would be paid on a sale at the marked-to-market value of all of the former citizen's property. When Saverin renounced, he had to pay that expatriation tax. Going forward, under existing law he receives similar treatment to other non-resident aliens: he is exempt from U.S. capital gains tax on U.S. investments, but is subject to a 30% withholding tax on U.S.-source dividends and interest payments. He is no longer subject to U.S. gift or estate taxes; however, 26 U.S.C. § 2801 imposes an equivalent inheritance tax on U.S. citizen or U.S. resident heirs of covered expatriates.

Section 2 of the Ex-PATRIOT Act amends 26 U.S.C. § 871(a)(2) to impose new taxes on certain "covered expatriates". In the new Subparagraph C, it defines the term "specified expatriate", a subset of "covered expatriate". A "specified expatriate" is defined in clause (i) as any "covered expatriate" who lost citizenship or permanent residence within the ten-year period before the bill's date of enactment, as well as future "covered expatriates". Clause (ii) exempts those who prove that their loss of citizenship "did not result in a substantial reduction in taxes". The new subparagraph A provides for the imposition of capital gains tax on "specified expatriates" at the same 30% rate as non-resident aliens who are present in the United States for more than 183 days in a tax year. Subparagraph B provides that the tax basis of a "specified expatriate" in U.S. property shall be the value of that property on the day preceding loss of citizenship.

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