Renouncing US Citizenship
Terry Ward at CNN:
Official government figures related to Americans renouncing citizenship are difficult to pin down.
A State Department spokesperson said in an email to CNN that it does not publish statistics on the number of US citizens who choose to renounce their citizenship, adding that the Treasury Department publishes a quarterly IRS report on expatriations. The IRS told CNN that it does not have compilations of the number of annual expatriations.
But according to Americans Overseas, a resource for US citizens living abroad that tallies the number of names reported within the quarterly IRS reports, 4,889 people are listed on the agency’s list for 2025, the highest number since 2020 when the figure spiked to 6,705. The organization said it is receiving significantly more inquiries about renunciation this year and is predicting a 15% increase in expatriations over last year, with numbers expected to remain elevated over the coming years.
Americans Overseas is currently advising roughly 40,000 US citizens, most with dual citizenship, in Europe and throughout the rest of the world who are either in the process of renouncing or inquiring about pursuing it, according to Daan Durlacher, co-founder of Americans Overseas.
Durlacher said he isn’t seeing all the names of clients he knows have renounced their US citizenship in the IRS reports, and he suggests that the figures are underreported. The IRS did not immediately respond to follow-up questions about the reports.
“These numbers are not complete, and I don’t know why,” said Durlacher, a dual Dutch and US citizen who was born in the Netherlands to an American mother.
To renounce something means to give it up, usually by formal declaration. Indeed, renouncing US citizenship is both a formal and legal process that requires potentially arduous paperwork as well as appearing for an in-person oath in front of a consular officer at a US embassy or consulate office outside of the US, along with other requirements.
