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Saverin: I'll pay taxes on anything I earned as a U.S. citizen
Eduardo Saverin is speaking out after Sens. Chuck Schumer and Bob Casey introduced legislation that would prevent the Facebook co-founder from ever returning to the United States.
Saverin, who will become astronomically wealthy on Friday after Facebook goes public, struck a nerve with the senators after he renounced his U.S. citizenship, making him likely to avoid capital gains taxes on his Facebook shares. Saverin now lives in Singapore.
Full Statement from Saverin:
My decision to expatriate was based solely on my interest in working and living in Singapore, where I have been since 2009. I am obligated to and will pay hundreds of millions of dollars in taxes to the United States government. I have paid and will continue to pay any taxes due on everything I earned while a U.S. citizen. It is unfortunate that my personal choice has led to a public debate, based not on the facts, but entirely on speculation and misinformation.
As a native of Brazil who immigrated to the United States, I am very grateful to the U.S. for everything it has given me. In 2004, I invested my life’s savings into a start-up company that initially was run out of a college dorm room. Since then the company has expanded dramatically, has created thousands of jobs in the United States and elsewhere, and spawned countless new companies across the United States and other countries.
I will continue to invest in U.S. businesses and start-ups, and believe and hope that those investments will create many new jobs in the U.S. and globally. I also hope that these investments will create opportunities for many other individuals to start companies and benefit society.
– Eduardo Saverin
RELATED STORY: Senators to Saverin: Don't come back. Ever.
Tune to Situation Room today from 4-6pm ET for the latest on Facebook's IPO and the legislation against Saverin.
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any body that hides money off shore should hand in there citizenship
gladly; what's the big loss?
I FULLY applaud this young man for sticking it to the government that wastes our money on crap and doing this. He used the system against itself to become wealthy and that stupid Senator can't stand that he got away with it. All the while that Senator thinks the 1.4 billion the banks got in our taxpayer money as a good thing. That Senator is a facking joke! You want to help America stop giving money to banks to bail their insolvent asses out!
What obligation does he have to the US government? We are the only civilized country to have nonsense laws regarding global taxation; meaning required to pay taxes to the US government though living abroad, earning income abroad, spending money abroad, and paying taxes to the local country of residence! Which is also the reason the US or dual citizens, living abroad are usually rejected being able to open a simple bank account or do financial transactions because the banks are terrified of getting in trouble with Uncle Sam! A Brazilian born who has created a successful business in the US and now does not live in the US, does not work in the US and pays taxes to his country of residence, why should he pay taxes to the US, and what obligation does he have to the US to not expatriate himself?
Read what he says. He will pay on what he earned. Paste tense. He does not have any money from the IPO yet.
it's shameful that our government sees it's citizens as nothing more than sources of revenue. we need to stop this mentality and get back to the government serving the people.
Nice idea, but serving costs money, and the way to get money to the government is through taxes.
This man took advantage of the US society. People scoff, but could he have launched Facebook in Russia? China? Japan? Even other western countries like Britian or Canada don't have the global capacity that the US does.
Facebook could be launched successfully only from the US, and he took advantage of that.
You'd think people on this forum would be a little more patriotic about the US.