US Citizenship Renunciations Hit Record Highs: The Real Numbers (2026)

The numbers: a tenfold jump, sustained

There's one government-grade way to count Americans who formally cut ties: the IRS's Quarterly Publication of Individuals Who Have Chosen to Expatriate, published in the Federal Register under IRC §6039G. It names everyone who renounced US citizenship (or gave up long-term green-card status) each quarter.

The trend is unmistakable. Before 2009, a few hundred people renounced each year. That number rose roughly tenfold over the following decade, hitting an all-time record of 6,705 in 2020, and has run near 5,000 a year since — 2024 came in at nearly 5,000, up about 48% over 2023. One caveat: the data publishes 12–18 months after the fact, so the most recent quarters always undercount.

Why they leave — and it's not mainly politics

It's tempting to read renunciations as a political thermometer, and election years do produce spikes in interest. But the sustained driver is more mundane and more powerful: FATCA.

The US is one of only two countries that taxes by citizenship, not residence. FATCA (the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act) then requires foreign banks to report US-person accounts — so many banks abroad simply refuse American customers rather than deal with the paperwork. Add the annual US filing, FBAR, and the punitive tax treatment of foreign mutual funds, and for a long-term American abroad, US citizenship becomes a genuine financial and administrative burden. That, far more than any single president, is what pushes people to the exit.

Keep it in perspective: it's still rare

Record-breaking is not the same as common. Even at the peak, renunciations run around 5,000–7,000 a year — a tiny fraction of the estimated 4.4–5.5 million US citizens living abroad, the vast majority of whom keep their passports and simply file their taxes.

Renouncing is a serious, irreversible step: you lose the right to live and work in the US, and you generally must already hold another citizenship first (you can't render yourself stateless). For most people weighing a 'Plan B,' it's the wrong tool — more on that below.

The exit tax: what renouncing actually costs

For anyone with real assets, the deterrent isn't the paperwork — it's the §877A 'exit tax.' If you're a covered expatriate, the US treats you as having sold everything you own at fair market value the day before you renounce, and taxes the gain.

You're a covered expatriate if you meet any of these:

• Net worth of $2 million or more, or
• Average annual US income-tax liability above ~$206,000 (2025) / ~$211,000 (2026) over the prior five years, or
• You can't certify five years of US tax compliance.

The exit tax, continued

The mark-to-market tax applies to your worldwide assets, with a gain exclusion of about $890,000 (2025) / $910,000 (2026) — everything above that is taxable. Retirement accounts and certain deferred items have their own harsh rules. You certify it all on Form 8854.

For a UHNW family, that can mean a very large, one-time tax bill just to walk out the door — which is exactly why renunciation is a decision for careful cross-border tax planning, not a spur-of-the-moment reaction to a headline. This is not tax advice; model it with a specialist before doing anything.

What most people do instead: a second passport

Here's the key insight the renunciation numbers obscure: the overwhelming majority of Americans who want a 'Plan B' don't renounce at all. They get a second citizenship or a strategic residency — and keep their US passport. The US permits dual citizenship, so you can hold both.

A second passport delivers most of what people actually want — mobility, an EU or Caribbean base, a permanent fallback, family security — without triggering the exit tax or giving up your American life. Renunciation only makes sense for a specific profile: someone genuinely committed to leaving the US tax system for good, who has run the exit-tax math and decided it's worth it. For everyone else, a second passport is the smarter move. (That's the work of our private-client practice, Plan B Private.)

The honest takeaway

Renunciations are at historic highs and rising — a real signal that citizenship-based taxation has made US citizenship costly for those who live abroad. But the numbers are small, the exit tax is a serious deterrent for the wealthy, and renouncing is the exception, not the rule. If you want a Plan B, start with a second passport and clean cross-border planning; treat renunciation as a last resort you model carefully, not a reflex.