For more than a decade, the native of Wisconsin, Douglas Cowgill, has helped Americans in Canada navigate the complex task of renouncing their US citizenship, freeing the internal income service of that nation in the process.
But it was only in 2023 that Cowgill, a dual citizen at that time with a Canadian wife and family, launched himself.
Surrey headquarters, BC, don’t regret it.
“I had to look at it from the perspective of what remains ahead of me during the next 20 to 30 years, and that is definitely a life here in Canada,” Cowgill said, 39.
“I look more at the lens of choosing to be just Canadian, and I am happy to concentrate on my life here in Canada.”
It is far from being alone, and lawyers in Canada involved in the resignation of US citizenship say that investigations have shot abruptly since the election of the president of the United States, Donald Trump, last November.
Cowgill, a lawsuit of cross -border visas, says that monthly consultations almost doubled in December and expects applications to increase this year.
Alexander Marino, director of the United States Fiscal Law in Moodys Fiscal Law in Calgary, said that most people renounce US citizenship for fiscal reasons: the United States is one of the few countries that imposes taxes based on taxes In citizenship, not in residence.
This often implies expensive obligations for submitting reports and presentations that include taxes on goods and donations, even after death.
Marino also awaits a Trump increase in business.
“I cannot deny that most American expatriates, in my experience, tend to be more than the right.
“We are seeing an increase due to the results of the elections.”
Marino said he has seen an increase in demand year after year since he specialized in renunciation 12 years ago.
He said that the increase in interest is now greater than in 2017 after Trump’s first presidential victory, and expected 2025 to see a record number of people trying to renounce US citizenship.
Moodys generally offers between five and seven renunciation information web seminars every year for US citizens living in Canada; This year, they can schedule up to 12, said Marino.
Anyone who renounces US citizenship should not expect the matter to be secret: the Federal Registry of the United States public quarterly lists of all those who have delivered their citizenship.
In May 2014, the list appointed singer Tina Turner, and in February 2017, the future British Prime Minister Boris Johnson.
There were only a few hundred names on the lists in 2005, but the numbers have increased abruptly since 2014, when the Foreign Accounts Tax Compliance Law entered its entirety.
It requires that foreign financial institutions report on foreign assets held by US holders.
In 2016, around 4,100 names were listed, but the following year, in Trump’s first year in the White House, the numbers increased by more than 50 percent to about 6,900 names.
Last year, the number of people who expatriates had dropped to 5,500.
The process of renunciation with US citizenship can be complicated, which implies immigration presentations, tax combustion presentations and an American administrative rate of $ 2,350 to obtain a certificate of loss of nationality.
Some requests result in an exit tax or immigration problems, so many people hire lawyers to ensure that they take all correct measures.
The process also implies a formal interview at an Embassy or Consulate General of the USA.
“Therefore, I absolutely and completely resign to my nationality of the United States along with all the rights, privileges and all duties and loyalty and fidelity belonging to it,” he says.
The waiting times for an interview in Vancouver are about four or five months, Cowgill said.
But in 2023 the Canadian tail was up to 12 months. Then he flew to Reykjavik, Iceland, for his interview in person.
He had moved to BC in 2012 in a work permit, becoming a double citizen in 2019.
It was during the pandemic, when it was difficult for his Canadian wife to join him through the border to visit his parents in the state of Washington, who decided that he no longer wanted or needed to be American.
“I am probably more logical and financially motivated. Many clients could be more politically motivated and, therefore, if they really don’t see themselves in the United States and see it in a direction where they are not satisfied. He could be a great driver for many people, “Cowgill said.
“It feels different when I return to the US
