Monthly Archives: February 2025

Trump Gold Card: Pay Off The National Debt By Ending US Citizenship Taxation!

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Introduction:

We live in interesting times. This morning I awakened to postings about a new announcement from President Trump. Apparently, the Trump government plans to introduce a new immigration and citizenship opportunity for the millions of people wanting permanent residence and/or citizenship status in the United States. It is called “The Gold Card” (presumably – like American Express Cards – an upgrade from the Green Card). It is NOT replacing the Green Card. It appears to be replacing the EB-5 program which is a “Green Card by investment program”. The beauty of the “Gold Card (should it be called “The Trump Card”) is that it is purely transactional. Pay the USA 5 million USD and you shall have a Green Card with a path to U.S. citizenship. In this respect, the USA is simply catching up with many other countries (including Canada) that offer (or have offered) citizenship by investment and residency by investment programs.

Interestingly, in his announcement, the President suggested that the new “Gold Card” would solve a gap in the U.S. immigration system. For example, corporations could buy residence status (and eventually citizenship) for any non-U.S. citizen. (Presumably the expenditure would be an expenditure for income tax purposes, which would reduce the cost of the “Gold Card” by the amount of the tax savings.)

An interesting idea indeed. Perhaps it’s time that the USA join the club of nations that simply sell their citizenship on a purely transactional basis.

The idea becomes ever more interesting when (as the President points out) there might be enough people that might each pay 5 million dollars for US citizenship or resident status. Could this be enough to wipe out the national debt! Now, this would surely make it worth it for the United States!

At a cost of 5 million dollars, the “Gold Card” will be one of the most expensive Plan B programs in the world. Will the demand be as high as the President suggests? Will wealthy “foreigners” be prepared to pay 5 million for U.S. citizenship?

Of course, some will and some won’t. I suspect that those who understand what U.S. citizenship and having a Green Card (or equivalent tax residency status) really means, will say NO THANKS. It’s not because of the 5 million dollars. It’s because that to become a U.S. citizen or Green Card holder means that one becomes subject to U.S. citizenship taxation.

In simple terms, those lucky “Gold Card Holders”, will be subject to U.S. “worldwide taxation” whether they live in the United States or not. “Worldwide taxation” means that their non-U.S. assets and income streams will instantly become subject to punitive U.S. taxation and reporting. Those moving to the United States will (without expensive and early planning) will learn that any assets, pensions or businesses in their “home country” will be subject to U.S. taxation and reporting.

The “tax issue” has of course not yet been a subject of discussion (very worrying).

The following tweet from X.com includes interesting commentary about taxation, but also includes the excerpts from the announcement.

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Double Taxation Of Americans Abroad Is Because Of Citizenship Based Double Tax Residency

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What Is Meant By The Double Taxation Of Americans Abroad?

On February 12, 2025 I hosted an “X Spaces“. The intended purpose was to discuss Professor Avi-Yonah’s new paper “Should The United States Abandon Citizenship-based Taxation”? The paper is clearly in support of the continuation of U.S. citizenship taxation. The paper is here:

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You can listen to the discussion here:

At the end of the discussion we focused on the question of:

Q. What is meant by ending double taxation?

I suggested that the answer is:

A. Double taxation is the result of double tax residency. For U.S. citizens “double tax residency” is caused by U.S. citizenship taxation. It is ended by severing citizenship from tax residency.

Two previous discussions about ending Citizenship-based “double taxation”

I have included the “slides” that were prepared for each of these presentations. They (in my opinion) do a good job in explaining what citizenship taxation really is and what is required to end it.

Enjoy (or not).

July 10, 2024 – What is REAL(ly) Residency Taxation?

Here are the slides for the presentation:

RBT 2

July 12, 2024 – Republicans Overseas Tax Proposal

Here are the slides for the presentation:

Severing citizenship from tax residency 3

In conclusion …

I believe that these two presentaions (along with the slides) will assist in understanding:

1. What the double taxation of Americans abroad actually is; and

2. How the double taxation of Americans abroad can (and must) be ended.

John Richardson – Follow me X.com @ExpatriationLaw

The Constitutional Right To Retain U.S. Citizenship May NOT Include A Constitutional Right To Relinquish U.S. Citizenship

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The Readers Digest Version

In his motion to dismiss the indictment against him, Roger Ver has argued that the U.S. 877A Expatriation Tax, is an unjustifiable burden on a constitutionally protected right to renounce his U.S. citizenship. (His motion for dismissal also includes a separate and distinct alternative argument that the 877A expatriation tax is unconstitutional because it creates taxation without a “realization event”. This is the issue that formed the basis of the appeal in the Moore case. I will NOT consider that issue in this post.)

The government in reply has argued that no such constitutional right to renounce U.S. citizenship exists. Additional commentary about the background to the Ver indictment is provided by U.S. lawyer Virginia La Torre Jeker here.

The U.S. Constitution, U.S. Citizenship And Constitutional Issues Surrounding U.S. Citizenship

The 14th Amendment is a constitutional provision that prohibits the U.S. government from stripping U.S. citizens of their citizenship (provided that their citizenship is the result of birth or naturalization in the USA.

The 5th Amendment has been used to argue that there is a constitutional right to relinquish U.S. citizenship. To date no court has expressly ruled that there is a constitutional right to relinquish.

Fortunately, INA 349(a) gives U.S. citizens a statutory right to relinquish their citizenship.

It is an open question whether the U.S. government could prohibit ALL relinquishments of U.S. citizenship.

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Treasury’s Claim That The FEIE Is A Costly Expenditure, Whether True Or False, Is A Strong Argument FOR Tax Reform

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Prologue

On January 29, 2025 a post by Keith Redmond on X.com suggested that Treasury had identified the Foreign Earned Income Exclusion (“FEIE”) – found in Internal Revenue Code 911 – as a tax expenditure costing the Treasury 5.6 billion dollars a year.

Keith’s post immediately generated discussion with CPA Phil Hogan. Phil noted that those Americans abroad who used the FEIE probably would not owe tax on income excluded by the FEIE. He noted that Foreign Tax Credits could be used to offset the taxes owed on the income excluded by the FEIE. Phil’s point (confirmed by CPA Kevyn Nightingale) is incredibly important.

(I have included, as an Appendix to this post an analysis of WHY many (if not most) Americans abroad who file using the Foreign Earned Income Exclusion would NOT owe U.S. tax, if the income excluded under the FEIE were included as U.S. taxable income. The short explanation is that if the income were INCLUDED on the U.S. tax return, taxes paid in the country of residence, would be used to effectively pay the U.S. tax on that included income. See the Appendix for further discussion).

Is The Claim That The Foreign Earned Income Exclusion Costs The U.S. Tax Revenue Really Credible?

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