It's a good question. There were some recent articles about American expats renouncing their citizenship as the IRS has reached out to Americans living abroad: US citizenship has long been a desirable status. Will that change as countries compete for the monied and mobile? The US has been selling residency for some time. But what does it have to offer? Wealthy people aren't looking for equal opportunity.If a foreign bank – not just in Canada, but anywhere – fails to report even a single US citizen as a customer to the IRS, the US Treasury department would withhold 30% of the banks’ US income as penalty.
I don't know if you read that thing about the proposed pied-a-terre tax that NYC is proposing, but it does seem like it would address some of the issues that the city is facing. In general, I have the feeling that breaking down borders is one way to resolve the financial fuckery that seems to be in fashion for both monied individuals and corporations. This E-Estonia thing seems to want to contribute to that financial fuckery, which I might be fine with if I knew how to take advantage of it, but I don't. I was recently chastised for not having a 401k, which I can understand, though I will say that I did feel obligated to at least try to find a way to exist outside of the confusing and convoluted financial beast the "developed" world rides astride.