Why 'Accidental Americans' Are Desperate to Give Up Their U.S. Citizenship

"Brouwer-Hoogsteen’s business is not failing, and she is not a criminal. Instead, she is being targeted because of her ties to the United States. She received automatic citizenship by being born on U.S. soil, but has no other connection to the country, having left as a baby. Like countless others around the world she is an “Accidental American,” and is now being forced to pay a price for it.

Other than Eritrea, the U.S. is the only country in the world with citizenship tax rules, demanding that all Americans—including anyone born in the U.S.—submit yearly tax filings to the Internal Revenue Service, no matter where they live. And since 2010, when the U.S. introduced the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act, or FATCA, all the world’s banks have been obligated to begin reporting on the activities of their American customers."