{"id":17644,"date":"2018-02-03T13:17:32","date_gmt":"2018-02-03T18:17:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/?p=17644"},"modified":"2018-02-03T13:17:32","modified_gmt":"2018-02-03T18:17:32","slug":"secret-bitcoin-billionaires-will-renounce-their-u-s-citizenship-before-cashing-in","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/2018\/02\/03\/secret-bitcoin-billionaires-will-renounce-their-u-s-citizenship-before-cashing-in\/","title":{"rendered":"Secret bitcoin billionaires will renounce their U.S. citizenship before cashing in?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Bitcoin is volatile, but traveling back in time to 2010 to buy Bitcoin instead of going to medical school is still a great career plan (helpful calculator<\/a>).<\/p>\n

The question for today is whether we can expect our least deserving rich folks to depart the U.S.<\/p>\n

The typical rich bastard with unrealized capital gains can’t renounce U.S. citizenship, move to a tax-free jurisdiction, and then cash in, tax-free. The U.S. charges an “exit tax” for anyone trying to flee<\/a>. Also the U.S. can disregard the renunciation and continue to try to collect taxes if it deems the citizenship renunciation to be insincere.<\/p>\n

Consider the bitcoin billionaire (or at least $100 millionaire). His or her wealth is on a Post-It and nobody else knows about it. So the person who was clever enough to buy bitcoin in 2010 renounces in 2018, becomes a citizen of a country without income tax or one that doesn’t tax foreign holdings, and then starts cashing in without the U.S. government ever becoming aware.<\/p>\n

Readers: What do you think? Will an American with secret-from-everyone Bitcoin gains stay and pay the tax? Or develop a sudden fondness for life abroad?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Bitcoin is volatile, but traveling back in time to 2010 to buy Bitcoin instead of going to medical school is still a great career plan (helpful calculator). 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