Red, White and Through.

A growing number of Americans living overseas are renouncing U.S. citizenship. The reason? Mounting tax and reporting obligations, lawyers say. With the U.S. government struggling with huge budget deficits, government bodies such as the Internal Revenue Service and Securities and Exchange Commission have been cracking down on tax evasion and implementing new reporting requirements. In February, the IRS introduced a second offshore voluntary disclosure program aimed at noncompliant American taxpayers with unreported offshore bank accounts and assets.

The program promises Americans won’t face charges if they step forward voluntarily — they are given a deadline of Aug. 31 to do so — but they will still have to pay taxes and penalties. Those who don’t step forward voluntarily could face stiffer penalties or even jail time. The U.S. is the only industrialized country that requires citizens to pay income tax on offshore earnings, and many are finding the complications and cost of maintaining U.S. citizenship abroad to be increasingly burdensome.

“Once they find out what the tax and reporting obligations are, it’s a bit onerous,” said Jay Krause, partner at Withers in Hong Kong, a law firm that specializes in tax law, trusts, estate planning and family law. He says Withers has seen an “exponential increase” in American clients giving up citizenship and green card holders renouncing their status. Now expatriates in Asia, in particular, are coming under scrutiny by the U.S. government. Last month, Doug Shulman, commissioner of the IRS, said the bureau is targeting Asian bank accounts and that taxpayers should expect new criminal investigations and prosecutions.

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