‘Embarrassing being American’: Why Aussie dad wants to renounce US citizenship
Jimmy Scott is a formerly “patriotic American”, but the father-of-two says a string of changes in the US have made him “ashamed” to be American.
World
Don't miss out on the headlines from World. Followed categories will be added to My News.
Jimmy Scott was born in America but has lived in Australia for more than 20 years.
Now, at 39, the dual national “Ameristralian” and formerly “patriotic American” wants to hand in his passport and become a fully fledged Aussie — but Uncle Sam makes the process notoriously difficult.
The Newcastle father-of-two was born in Minnesota to an Australian mother and Scottish-Canadian father, a naturalised US citizen, but has lived in Australia since the age of 17 after his parents divorced.
“When I was a teenager I was strongly a patriotic American,” he said.
“I started changing my perspective way back during the war in Afghanistan. Going through my 20s it was a bit embarrassing being American. I just found myself getting more annoyed and apologetic and felt less American as time went on.”
Since the election of Donald Trump, Mr Scott has grown increasingly “ashamed to tell people I’m American”.
“Then 2020 came along, Covid, George Floyd got killed 20 minutes from where I grew up,” he said. “Year after year it gets worse. I don’t want to be associated [with America] any more. Today I’m like, no, this is not me, I do not align with their culture.”
Mr Scott is aiming to join the ranks of thousands of American expats each year who go through the arduous process of renouncing their US citizenship.
Those wishing to become former Americans must gather their documents and head to a US embassy to take the formal oath of renunciation, but not before paying a non-refundable fee of $US2350 ($3700) and sitting for two interviews.
Even then it’s not guaranteed — the application for a Certificate of Loss of Nationality (CLN) is sent to the US State Department for a final determination, and the process can take several months or more.
“The whole thing is just weird,” Mr Scott said.
Many choose to renounce their citizenship for ideological reasons — the numbers tend to spike in election years. Others who were born in the US but spent little if any time there — so-called “accidental Americans” — simply want to sever ties.
Regardless, one of the main reasons is to escape the long arms of America’s bureaucracy.
The US is one of the only countries in the world that taxes its citizens regardless of where they live in the world, with the double-taxation obligation causing a paperwork headache many would rather avoid.
“I think [the difficulty is an intentional] deterrent because as a US citizen you have to pay tax no matter where you are in the world,” said Mr Scott, adding he had “gotten around that” so far as he did not earn enough income.
He noted that even if his application were successful, “if they determine that the reason I’ve renounced my American citizenship is to avoid paying tax they can still tax me”.
“It’s a good time to take a pause and see where you want the rest of your life to go,” he said. “I wouldn’t want for some reason, if they changed some crazy law, my daughters to be impacted with American citizenship.”
Mr Scott launched a GoFundMe earlier this week to help him pay the $US2350 fee.
“I’m mainly doing this to share my disdain for the current American government,” he wrote.
“I always said I would renounce my citizenship if Trump became president again so here we are. This is really a no-brainer. If you’re pro-Trump I don’t think you want me as a US citizen. If you’re anti-Trump you’d probably support anyone who doesn’t want to be a yank. It’s not just Trump, it’s his weird cultish following I wish to separate from as much as possible.”
Listing his top 10 reasons, Mr Scott argued America “no longer represents my ideals”.
“The land of opportunity now turns its back on the poor, the tired, the huddled masses yearning to breathe free,” he said.
“The current administration doesn’t believe in birthright citizenship so I’m granting their wish.”
He also took issue with military spending “that could be used to address poverty” and its America’s high incarceration rates.
“I want to set an example for all the other Americans out there that they too can one day not be American,” he added.
It’s not clear exactly how many Americans give up their citizenship each year.
The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) publishes a quarterly list of Americans “who have chosen to expatriate”, but these figures are widely acknowledged to be incomplete and sometimes out of date.
According to the IRS numbers, 4820 Americans expatriated in 2024, up from an average of around 3200 in the preceding three years but down from a spike in 6705 in 2020.
“While tax benefits are not the biggest driver of interest, these benefits do play a role, and the United States’ double taxation policy adds an extra layer of complexity for US nationals,” Armand Arton, president of global citizenship financial advisory services firm Arton Capital, told Fortune last year.
“[For many Americans living abroad] the United States will always be home, [but] a double taxation policy pushes many to consider renouncing their American citizenship in favour of better deals found abroad.”
Originally published as ‘Embarrassing being American’: Why Aussie dad wants to renounce US citizenship
‘Suspected terror attack’: Tel Aviv rocked by bus blasts
Three bombs have exploded on buses in Tel Aviv and another two are being defused by Israeli police at separate locations.
Australia’s $330bn super blitz to fight Trump’s tariffs
Super fund giants will join Australian ambassador Kevin Rudd in Washington DC to unleash new investment in the US that could protect Australia in Donald Trump’s trade war.