Evading Taxes by Renouncing Citizenship? Really?

I think that, for some, being a citizen of the United States is all about greedy entitlement and has little to do with being a responsible member of our society. Sadly it seems that the richer you are the more ways that you have to hide your income from paying taxes - and some go even farther. Consider what David Gerwitz writes in his ZDNet article titled
"Why Facebook co-founder Eduardo Saverin is a schmuck". Here are a few excerpts:

"Writing this article without profanity has been almost physically impossible. But we’re a family site, here at ZDNet, so I’ll just let you insert whatever invectives come to mind.

In this case, I’m talking about Eduardo Saverin, co-founder of Facebook, who — in order to avoid paying taxes on his multi-billion dollar IPO windfall — is renouncing his United States citizenship.

There’s a truth about life that’s often difficult to accept. Justice doesn’t always happen. Some people, usually because of their great wealth, get away with doing reprehensible things. It’s not fair, and it’s not right, but it’s what happens."
...
"What he’s done is played a system and gained tremendously for it. A case could be made that that’s fair. One of the first things they teach you in B-school is to pay the least amount of taxes you can within the bounds of the law, and even the IRS accepts this as a reasonable strategy.

But going so far as to renounce the incredible gift of citizenship we gave to this man, and by doing so, saved him from kidnap gangs in his native country — that’s below reprehensible.

Justice would be to take away his stock benefits if he renounces his citizenship. Justice would be to block him from raking in all that cash if he’s not willing to pay his fair share. But justice doesn't work that way.

Instead, Saverin is running away to Singapore, a very small country with a very low crime rate."
...
"By not paying his fair share of taxes in the United States, he’s essentially stealing from all of the rest of us taxpayers who supported his education and his business venture. If it weren’t legal, it’d be a crime."

I think that people like Saverin and people who hide their money offshore give wealthy people a bad name. Thankfully the USA is filled with generous philanthropists who do wonderful charitable things with their money. And in that I rejoice.

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