[5] This action was in the larger context of widespread media attention to the issue of wealthy individuals who gave up citizenship to avoid United States taxes.
As a result, several legislators proposed bills or amendments to end the confidentiality surrounding loss of citizenship, and to publish the names of ex-citizens.
§ 6039G) to require that the Treasury Department publish the names of persons relinquishing U.S. citizenship within thirty days after the end of each calendar quarter.
[9] Lawyers familiar with the process state that it takes roughly six months after people give up citizenship for their names to appear in the list.
[10] Congress' motive for requiring this publication may have been to "shame or embarrass" people who give up U.S. citizenship for tax reasons.
[7] As a Wall Street Journal article described the political environment of the mid-1990s which led to the creation of the list: "Congress got mad at legal aliens who use social services but don't become U.S. citizens.
Less noisily, it got mad at Americans who become legal aliens in other countries, use services there, but decide not to remain U.S. citizens for life.
[14] In contrast, Andrew Mitchel, a Connecticut tax lawyer interviewed by The Wall Street Journal for its reports on Americans giving up citizenship, states that the list is required to include all former citizens.
[15] Michael Kirsch also states that the list is required to include all former citizens, not just those deemed by Section 877 to be giving up citizenship for tax reasons.
The Quarterly Publication includes a statement that "for purposes of this listing, long-term residents, as defined in section 877(e)(2), are treated as if they were citizens of the United States who lost citizenship".
According to 26 CFR 301.7701(b)-1, the only way for an individual to initiate the process of administrative determination of abandonment of lawful residence is to file Form I-407.
Furthermore, Section 6039G makes no allowance for publication of the names of entities that engage in tax inversions (which are sometimes mistakenly referred to in the popular press as "corporations renouncing their citizenship").
[12][26] In 2012, the FBI added 4,652 records to the NICS "renounced U.S. citizenship" category in 2012, much larger than the number of names published in the Federal Register expatriate lists during the same period.