Americans living under President Donald Trump are renouncing their citizenship in droves.
The Internal Revenue Service Federal Register showed that hundreds of people had already renounced their citizenship in the first quarter of 2026, which ended in March.
Citing advice service Americans Overseas, CNN reports that in 2025, 4,889 people renounced their citizenship, the highest total since 2020.
The organization serves as a resource for Americans living abroad and says it has seen an increase in the number of people approaching it with interest in renunciation. It predicts a 15 percent uptick in the number of people who will expatriate this year.
Americans Overseas co-founder Daan Durlacher is advising around 40,000 people at the time of writing who have either inquired about renunciation or are already in the process of doing so. CNN reports most of those people are dual citizens.
People who renounce their citizenship must swear an oath and often face a mountain of paperwork and bureaucratic hoops to complete the process.
The process is long, Durlacher said. “You have to contact the consulate or embassy in the country where you live, and then wait,” he told CNN.
One thing that has changed is the price. While it used to be $2,350, the cost of losing your little blue book has now been lowered by Marco Rubio’s State Department to $450.
One major motivator is the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act, which took effect in 2014 and requires people to pay taxes regardless of where they live or earn their income.
The only other country that does that is Eritrea.
Durlacher said that this was the main reason that he sees people looking to renounce their citizenship.
However, you can only do it if you can prove that you have permanent residency elsewhere and that your last five years of tax returns are up to date.
“You cannot renounce your U.S. citizenship without another citizenship, so you have to have that first,” Durlacher said.
Jonathan D. Tiegerman is part of the U.S. tax and legal advisory firm of Tiegerman.
He’s based in Switzerland and said there is always an uptick in the number of people who look to renounce their citizenship around election time.
“Usually, half the population of Americans are happy with the result, the other half are incredibly disappointed, and that’s simply a consequence of how polarized American politics are,” he said.
For some, the tipping point was Trump. Dual U.S. and Italian citizen Jennifer Sontag, 53, said that she now plans to renounce her U.S. passport thanks to the price drop, and that the 2016 election was “the straw that broke the camel’s back.”
Now, CNN reports, she says she’s ready to “put my money where my mouth is” and get rid of it.
“My reasoning for doing this is that my life is now outside of the U.S. I’m very American—no taxation without representation—and I no longer benefit from paying taxes in the U.S. It’s one of two countries in the entire world with taxes based on citizenship,” she said.
There is currently no Commissioner of Internal Revenue, and the Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent is acting in the role. The Daily Beast has contacted it and the White House for comment.
