Facebook co-founder renounces U.S. citizenship

One of Facebook's four co-founders, Eduardo Saverin, has renounced his U.S. citizenship.

LOS ANGELES, CA (Catholic Online) - It is quite possible that renouncing his citizenship will help Saverin escape some of the hefty taxes that he would have to pay on his Facebook involvement, although it is not known how much of the social media giant Saverin owns.

As recently as 2009, he has owned 5% of the social media company's outstanding shares, but he sold of some of those shares since then. He wasn't listed among those who owned 5% or more of the company in the company's pre-IPO regulatory filings.

The co-founder, who was born in Brazil, became a U.S. citizen in 1998 and has been living in Singapore since 2009, however the U.S. requires its citizens to pay income taxes no matter where one lives. Saverin has not played an active role in Facebook for many years, though he provided some of the company's initial financing. If Saverin still has any of his Facebook stake, then renouncing his U.S. citizenship could lessen his future tax hit, though a spokesman for Saverin said the expatriation was done for logistical purposes, "not for tax reasons."

"Eduardo recently found it to be more practical to become a resident of Singapore since he plans to live there for an indefinite period of time," spokesman Tom Goodman said. "He still has very strong ties to Brazil and is extremely passionate about not only his homeland, but also the U.S."

In 2011, 1,781 Americans renounced their citizenship, which is a 16% increase from 2010 and almost eight times the number in 2008.

CEO Mark Zuckerberg, also one of the original co-founders, is selling 30.2 million shares of his stake to raise $1.1 billion in cash. The CEO is planning to use most of it to pay off the taxes he expects to owe from using some of his stock options. Many employees of Facebok will have to pay 45% in taxes on the millions of dollars they will come into once the stock is publicly traded, which it plans to begin on Friday. The average tax hit will be $1.1 million per employee.

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