Category Archives: Departure Tax

“The IRS has an obligation to meet taxpayers where they live, but it is not doing so for taxpayers living abroad”

So states the 2025 report of the Taxpayer Advocate!

A January tradition

January is the month that the IRS Taxpayer Advocate release its report for the previous year. In keeping with tradition the Taxpayer Advocate released the 2025 report this week.

Bottom Line:

The report is extraordinary in its recognition of the problems of Americans abroad. The problems are recognized as one of the ten most significant categories of problems experienced by taxpayers generally. The Taxpayer Advocate does a wonderful and powerful job of recognizing the injustices of the U.S. tax system as it applies to taxpayers living outside the United States. The report is available here.

A pdf version of the Taxpayer Advocate report is here:

ARC_Publication-2104_2025_Web

Podcast discussing the report

A condensed version of the podcast is captured in this AI generated video:

Continue reading

Exit Taxes As A Barrier To Emigration And The Need For An International Treaty To Create Uniformity And Certainty Surrounding Emigration

Exit Taxes As A Barrier To Emigration And The Need For An International Treaty To Create Uniformity And Certainty Surrounding Emigration

This blog post was written for a presentation at the MigrationConference.net on June 12, 2025. Here are the slides that will be used:

A PDF version is here:

Migration Conference 2

Here is a recording of John’s brief presentation at the conference on June 12, 2025:

A more comprehensive blog post follows.

Outline:

Part A – Introduction
Part B – Emigration historically burdened by “exit taxes” (The Nazis and Soviets)
Part C – Modern Exit Taxes And First World Democracies (Canada, the United States, etc.)
Part D – A Tax Treaty Solution That Protects BOTH The Right Of Emigration And the Desire Of Governments To Tax Individuals On Gains Accruing While Living In The Country

Appendix – Human Rights Documents

Continue reading