IRS Tax Regulations Prompt Olim to Revoke American Citizenship

A get-tough IRS policy on Americans living abroad has encouraged some Americans living abroad, including “olim” in Israel, to revoke their American citizenship, the Globes business newspaper reported.

The United States taxes its citizens' income even if they have been living abroad for years, and agrees with most banks in the world now expose all of their financial accounts to the IRS and make them liable for heavy dual taxation.

One way to get avoid it is to renounce citizenship, which would preclude the IRS from chasing after people to pay taxes on income that does not come from the United States.

Changes in the Israeli tax code also have given big tax breaks to new immigrants as well as Israelis returning to the country.

“Although it is not clear how widespread this phenomenon is, and what relative importance U.S. citizens who immigrate to Israel place on this aspect among the array of considerations that they take into account in deciding to immigrate to Israel, tax residency is certainly a factor,” according to Israeli lawyers Eli Doron and Eyal Peled.