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发帖数: 2999 | 1 【 以下文字转载自 Military 讨论区 】
发信人: digital (你是疯儿我是傻？), 信区: Military
标 题: Facebook co-founder renounces U.S. citizenship
发信站: BBS 未名空间站 (Fri May 11 15:02:09 2012, 美东)
NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- Eduardo Saverin, one of Facebook's four co-founders,
has renounced his U.S. citizenship, according to the Internal Revenue
Service.
The expatriation, first reported by Bloomberg, comes just before the social
network is expected to launch an initial public offering of its stock next
week.
It's possible that the move will help Saverin escape some of the hefty taxes
he'd have to pay on his Facebook stake, though it's not known exactly how
much of the company Saverin currently owns.
He owned 5% of the company's outstanding shares as recently as 2009,
according to "The Facebook Effect," by David Kirkpatrick, but he has sold
off some of those shares since then. He was not listed among those owning 5%
or more of the company in Facebook's pre-IPO regulatory filings.
The Brazilian-born Facebook co-founder has been living in Singapore since
2009, but the United States requires its citizens to pay income taxes no
matter where they live. Saverin, who provided some of Facebook's initial
financing, has not played an active role in the company for many years.
If Facebook's valuation takes off next week, the move may turn out to be a
savvy one -- at least from an investment standpoint. If Saverin is still
holding any of his Facebook stake, formally leaving the U.S. could lessen
his future tax hit.
It's not known if tax issues played a role in expatriation. Calls to Saverin
and his spokesman were not returned.
The practice of renouncing U.S. citizenship, though still extremely rare, is
becoming more common: 1,781 Americans did it in 2011. That's up 16% from
2010 and is nearly eight times the number who expatriated in 2008, according
to the U.S. Treasury.
Taxes are expected to take a big bite out of many Facebook shareholders.
CEO Mark Zuckerberg, who co-founded the company with Saverin and two other
Harvard classmates, is selling 30.2 million shares of his stake in the
company to raise $1.1 billion in cash. He plans to use most of it to pay off
Uncle Sam and California for the taxes he expects to incur from exercising
some of his stock options.
Facebook said in a recent regulatory filing that many employees will have to
pay 45% in taxes on the millions of dollars they will come into once the
stock becomes publicly traded. The average tax hit: $1.1 million per
employee.
The social network is expected to price its IPO on Thursday in a range it
currently estimates at $28 and $35 per share. It plans to begin public
trading on Friday. |
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