Facebook co-founder Eduardo Saverin’s dust-up over relinquishing his U.S. citizenship possibly to avoid taxes on his Facebook windfall has led to a new development: Legislators are scrambling to enact a law that would re-impose taxes on would-be dodgers.
Sens. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and Bob Casey, D-Pa., have come up with a plan, dubbed the “Ex-PATRIOT” — for “Expatriation Prevention by Abolishing Tax-Related Incentives for Offshore Tenancy” that would re-impose taxes on those who would renounce their citizenship in order to avoid taxes, ABC News reports. Saverin could dodge a hefty tax bill — some $67 million.
Ex-PATRIOT would also levy a mandatory 30 percent tax on the capital gains benefited from such a move. There would a final good-bye note from the senators as well: Don’t come back. The act would prevent dodgers from ever re-entering the United States.
Saverin will update his status to billionaire — $4 billion to be exact — when Facebook goes public, CNET reports. He stands to benefit greatly tax-wise, from living in Singapore.
The Facebook co-founder, who probably never dreamed he’d be more famous for dodging than for friending, is a resident of Singapore, after relinquishing his U.S. citizenship in September of last year, ABC News reports. Singapore has no capital gains tax. Saverin moved to the United States from Brazil to avoid kidnapping plots, according to CNET.
For his part, Saverin told the New York Times that the move “has nothing to do with taxes,” and that he rather thinks of himself “as a global citizen.”
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