Abstract
The US is the only developed country to tax citizens living permanently overseas on their worldwide income. This rule was created at a time when the income tax applied only to the rich and when some of the rich moved overseas to avoid the draft. We do not have a draft any more, the income tax applies to the middle class, and many more US citizens live permanently overseas for non-tax reasons. In a globalized world, citizenship-based taxation is an anachronism which should be abandoned.
Disciplines
Taxation-Federal | Taxation-Transnational | Tax Law
Date of this Version
March 2010
Working Paper Citation
Avi-Yonah, Reuven S., "The Case against Taxing Citizens" (2010). Law & Economics Working Papers. 12.
https://repository.law.umich.edu/law_econ_current/art12
COinS