EoW September 2010

Transat lant ic Cable

permanent residency status in the last quarter of 2009. While that represents a very small percentage of the 5.2 million Americans estimated by the State Department to be living abroad, it was the largest quarterly total in years. By way of comparison, there were 235 renunciations in all of 2008 and 743 last year. The number of expatriates waiting out the required period of time before meeting with consular officers to formalise their renunciations has also grown. Many American expats resent having to pay “double taxes.” The United States is the only industrialised country to tax citizens on income earned abroad when they are taxed as well in their country of residence. These taxpayers are, however, allowed an exclusion on their first $91,400 in foreign-earned income.

Chiefs of police from Houston, Los Angeles, Maryland, Minneapolis, Philadelphia, San Jose, Salt Lake City, Phoenix and Tucson (Arizona) were present, and expressed unanimous concern about the damage the law could inflict upon the trust they have worked to build between law enforcement and Latinos. Tucson Chief of Police Roberto Villasenor said, “When you enact legislation that makes any subset of that community feel like they are being targeted specifically, or have concerns about coming forward and talking to the police, that damages our capability to obtain information to [solve crimes].” Mr Villasenor also pointed out that implementation of the law poses serious logistical concerns. The requirement that police officers verify the residency status of all arrested individuals would, he said, sap their limited resources. This point was amplified by John Harris, president of the Arizona Association of Chiefs of Police, who said, “We are stretched very thin right now and it’s getting nothing but worse in our communities in terms of the budget crises. We don’t have enough resources to continue to do this and to take on another responsibility.” In brief . . . In growing numbers, Americans living abroad are ❈ ❈ renouncing their US citizenship. The Federal Register , the government publication that records such decisions, shows that 502 expatriates gave up their US citizenship or

Telecom

Virtuous to a fault, San Francisco passes a cellphone radiation disclosure law San Francisco is taking no chances. Possibly the most beautiful city in the United States is almost certainly the most cautious, having voted on 15 th June to require all retailers of cellphones

26

EuroWire – January 2006 EuroWire – September 2 10