Only In America, Part 2

Earlier this week I talked about Facebook co-founder Eduardo Saverin, who has renounced his US citizenship presumably to avoid getting dinged with a huge tax bill when his share of Facebook puts him squarely in the billionaire category when the stock goes public.

Here's the problem:  there's laws involving that.  And the law in that case says "You can't return to the US at all if you pull this crap."  Josh Marshall:

Over the last few days I’ve been exchanging emails with TPM Reader PM, who notes that US immigration law does not look kindly on former citizens who renounce their citizenship to avoid US taxes. Specifically, it doesn’t look like Saverin should ever be able again to get a Visa to enter the United States.

Sec. 212. [8 U.S.C. 1182] details general classes of aliens ineligible to gain entrance into the United States. And the law specifically references people in Saverin’s category …

Former citizens who renounced citizenship to avoid taxation.-Any alien who is a former citizen of the United States who officially renounces United States citizenship and who is determined by the Attorney General to have renounced United States citizenship for the purpose of avoiding taxation by the United States is excludable

The question PM and I have had was whether Saverin realized this was a consequence of his decision. And the latest from his lawyer suggests that he very much does. His lawyer is now attacking the “the false impression that tax was the reason behind Eduardo’s decision.”

In other words, if the AG (in this case Eric Holder) determines this is the case, Eduardo here is persona non grata if the Justics Department goes that route.  It'll be very interesting to see how this plays out if all this really does apply to the Saverin case.

I won't shed a tear for the guy.