Moodys Tax playing things to their financial gain

I read with some alarm an ad in a recent issue urging U.S. citizens living in Canada to renounce their U.S. citizenship.

Placed by Moodys Tax, the quarter-page ad claimed that with one of the most consequential elections in U.S. history on Nov. 3, “record numbers are lining up to renounce their U.S. citizenship.”

Not only is this a questionable fact, but it begs the question: Why now?

As the chair of Democrats Abroad’s Taxation Task Force noted this week: “All our data on voter registration and ballot requests from around the world suggests that voter participation from abroad will shatter all previous records.”

True, there are tax disadvantages for those of us living abroad — disadvantages Democrats Abroad and the other organizations representing Americans abroad have been working tirelessly to change, and which Moodys Tax is playing to their financial (and perhaps political) advantage all over the globe. Moodys makes money from renunciations. If there’s one valuable lesson this crop of Republicans has taught us, it’s to follow the money.

For most Americans living abroad, the idea of renouncing our citizenship is anathema. I would urge Americans living in Canada to join Democrats Abroad to continue the fight for a more equitable, residence-based tax system.

And to vote (via votefromabroad.org), because we can’t afford to do anything less. Steve Nardi, chair of Democrats Abroad Canada, Mississauga