🇺🇸 Wealthy People Are Renouncing U.S. Citizenship

What do goddess Tina Turner, Facebook co-founder Eduardo Saverin (who can forget this iconic scene), and British PM Boris Johnson have in common? They’re all Americans by birth or naturalization who decided to renounce their citizenship over the past ten years – and they haven’t been the only ones.

• The number of Americans who renounced their citizenship in favor of a foreign country hit an all-time high in 2020: 6,707, a 237% increase over 2019.

📝 What we know: The IRS publishes a quarterly list of the names of people who have renounced their citizenship or given up their green cards, but it only includes people with global assets over $2 million.

• Since 2010, more than 36,000 names have made the list – for comparison, fewer than 2,500 were published for 2005 through 2009.

✋ Yes, but… Just because the expatriation numbers are tied to a certain year, it doesn’t necessarily mean the person renounced their citizenship that year.

• Of the 2,907 names published in the Federal Register for the first quarter of 2020, only three had actually expatriated that year, while the rest were sprinkled across previous years. The delays reflect when the agency receives information from other departments or the individuals themselves.
• There’s no breakdown available for other quarters, so it’s impossible to say for sure which year, if any, has stood out since the IRS first published the list in 1996.

But no matter when the paperwork was completed, an unprecedented number of people have renounced their citizenship since 2010.

⏩ Driving the moves… While it’s virtually impossible to pinpoint one single, specific cause at scale, experts tend to focus on a few things.

• America’s unique tax system: The U.S. is one of only two countries requiring citizens to file a tax return no matter where they live. This translates to any U.S. citizen or resident earning more than ~$106,000 abroad owing U.S. taxes – even if the money stays overseas.
• The Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act: The act was passed in 2010 and requires all non-U.S. financial institutions to identify their American customers, a rule intended to combat terrorist financing and tax evasion by people with offshore accounts. FATCA "kind of flushed people out of the bushes," Andrew Mitchel, an international tax lawyer based in Connecticut who tracks the numbers, told Axios.
• Tax rates: Saverin reportedly avoided tens of millions in capital gains taxes and an estate tax bill of at least $700 million (should he pass away) by becoming a resident of Singapore.

👁️ Looking ahead… While the numbers are down this year, it could be because many U.S. embassies and consulates remain closed for COVID. To complete the move, you’re required to take an oath in front of a State Department officer.

• The Biden Administration has proposed raising the top capital gains tax to 43.4% and increasing IRS funding by $80 billion in a bid to collect unpaid taxes owed by corporations, partnerships, and wealthy individuals – and while it's unclear whether either will pass, it certainly has our wealthy contacts thinking.

🎁 DONUT Headline: President Joe Biden signed a non-binding executive order “setting a goal that 50 percent of all new passenger cars and light trucks sold in 2030 be zero-emission vehicles, including battery electric, plug-in hybrid electric, or fuel cell electric vehicles.”

Image taken from Cuomo's pre-recorded video; Twitter

This week, NY AG Letitia James released a 165-page report into allegations that Gov. Cuomo had sexually harassed staffers and state employees.

• The report, which resulted from a five-month investigation, found evidence that Cuomo sexually harassed 11 women with unwanted groping, kissing, hugging, and inappropriate comments.

Cuomo denied the allegations in a pre-recorded message tweeted out shortly after the report's release.

👥 Public response... Political leaders from both parties have called for Cuomo to resign in the wake of the report, including President Biden, RNC Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel, and the governors of Pennsylvania, Connecticut, Rhode Island, and New Jersey.

• Cuomo has given no public indication that he will resign. Privately, the governor's allies are split on whether he should step down or continue fighting, sources told CNBC.

🚫 What if he doesn't resign?... The New York State Assembly launched an impeachment investigation into Cuomo in March following initial accusations of sexual harassment. But its scope didn't stop there – the Judiciary Committee has been investigating Cuomo in four areas:

• The sexual harassment allegations.
• Deaths in nursing homes from COVID-19.
• Usurping state resources for personal gain.
• Allegations of a cover-up over damaged bridge bolts on the Mario Cuomo Bridge.

Seventy-six votes are needed to impeach Cuomo in the Assembly, which is overwhelmingly controlled by Democrats (106 D | 44 R). If successful, the trial would head to the Senate (43 D | 20 R), where 42 votes are needed to remove Cuomo from office.

• At least 86 Assembly lawmakers have either publicly stated or told the AP they would support beginning the process to impeach Cuomo if he does not step down.

👁️ Looking ahead... State lawmakers have given the governor's lawyers a deadline of next Friday to provide additional evidence.

🤝 Making The Cut

Image: Pexels

Citizens’ assemblies consist of groups of randomly selected residents living in a democracy. They have been used over the past two years in France, the UK, and Ireland to discuss climate change, abortion, and same-sex marriage.

• One of the biggest challenges in convening a citizens’ assembly is deciding who should participate; the assembly should be representative of the population as a whole, but selection should also be random.

Computer scientists developed an algorithm that aims to meet both the representation and fairness requirements – and it's based on a machine called the kleterion, which was used by the ancient Athenians to randomly select panels of volunteers from different tribes.

Keep reading.

Image: Twitter

A team of ocean scientists may have just discovered Bikini Bottom.

• Exploring the deep-sea off the coast of New England, a team from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) came across a bright yellow sea sponge and salmon pink starfish sharing an uncanny resemblance to Spongebob Squarepants and his bestie, Patrick Star.

Keep reading.

What kind of animal is an addax?

A) Spider
B) Antelope
C) Snake
D) Giraffe

(keep scrolling for the answer)

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B) Antelope

The addax, also known as screwhorn antelope, is a critically endangered species of antelope native to the Sahara. There are thought to be just a few hundred addax living in the wild, with several hundred more in captivity.