This gold medal winner has not renounced her citizenship no matter what the “rules” of the other country say.

She doesn’t want to pay the millions of tax dollars that would require.

It is why she won’t answer the question directly either because it would ruin her chances at more endorsement dollars.

Eileen Gu

U.S.

China

Eileen Gu and the repercussions of renouncing U.S. citizenship

ZHANGJIAKOU, China —Eileen Gu, the American-born skier who now competes for China, spent much of her recent gold medal news conference sidestepping questions about her citizenship.

Gu is the most prominent of a number of Olympic athletes in Beijing, including skaters and hockey players, who were raised in America but now compete for China. The IOC allows athletes with dual citizenship to compete but requires them to hold a passport for the country which they represent in the Olympics. China does not permit dual citizenship, at least according to the laws on its books. However, the process for renouncing American citizenship carries significant long-term repercussions for anyone wishing to remain connected in any way to America.

Renouncing citizenship — the process

Americans who renounce their citizenship often do so because they’re interested in extricating themselves from the American tax system, which imposes substantial tax reporting burdens on American citizens even living overseas. A much smaller category of “accidental Americans” — for instance, children of American diplomats born overseas — renounce their citizenship because they’ve never lived in America.

To renounce citizenship, an American must walk into an overseas embassy — renouncing citizenship while on U.S. soil is extremely rare — and declare their intentions, in person, to a consular officer. The soon-to-be-former citizen must complete a questionnaire, sign a statement of intent and pay a fee of $2,350, the highest in the world for this purpose. The aggregate effect of these hurdles is to ascertain that an individual is serious about giving up their citizenship. – Source

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