Facebook co-founder Eduardo Saverin recently relinquished his U.S. citizenship just ahead of Facebook’s massive initial public offering. The move is expected to save Saverin anywhere from $67 million to $100 million in U.S. taxes on his Facebook stock grant valued at $3 billion.
Presuming that Saverin moved to avoid paying taxes, Democratic Senators Chuck Schumer and Bob Casey of Pennsylvania unveiled a legislation earlier this week to stop what they called a “despicable trend.”
They introduced the “EX-Patriot Act”. If signed into Law, then under their legislation, any American who renounces his or her citizenship for the purpose of avoiding taxes will be punished in two ways:
1) They will be barred from re-entering the U.S., and
2) Their future investments in the U.S. will be taxed at a 30 percent rate.
Is this even constitutional? If signed into Law, what are the implications of the “EX-Patriot Act” on other budding startup and tech entrepreneurs?
Antone Johnson, a WSJ guest columnist and startup lawyer based in San Francisco and Silicon Valley shares some of his thoughts on this matter in this video with oObly TV host Margaux