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It may be tempting to look at a surge of Americans renouncing their citizenship — a 600 per cent increase compared to 2012 — and chalk it up to the polarizing President Donald Trump.

But the villain in this story is one of the few things in the U.S. government that can rival Trump’s record-low approval ratings: the IRS.

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The tax man is coming for U.S. expatriates with a new enthusiasm and many of them are looking to turn in their citizenship.

The change came in 2012 when Barack Obama signed a law requiring foreign banks to inform the U.S. Treasury about its citizens living abroad. Tax lawyer Alexander Marino calls it a world-wide “snitching program.”

Most countries — in fact, nearly all of them — tax people based on residency. The United States taxes people based on citizenship and, along with the tiny African nation Eritrea, is the only country to do this.

The U.S. has always taxed this way but until a few years ago it didn’t chase down expatriates and it has caught some high-profile people in this new dragnet. The legendary singer Tina Turner relinquished her citizenship to become Swiss. Facebook co-founder Eduardo Saverin saved more than half a billion dollars by renouncing his citizenship.