Monday 14 May 2012

Facebook Co-founder Eduardo Saverin Quits US

THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: Eduardo Saverin, the billionaire Facebook co-founder, has renounced his US citizenship in a bid to avoid millions of dollars in taxes.

Facebook is set to go public this week and Brazilian-born Saverin is likely to avoid a tax bill of $600million. He has lived in Singapore since 2009.

Although the move will put new pressure on President Obama to extend tax breaks for the wealthy, rather than allow them to expire as is currently planned, Saverin’s actions were widely condemned online. The Huffington Post claimed he owed America “nearly everything”.

Mr Saverin’s name appeared in a list published by on Friday by America’s Internal Revenue Service of people who had renounced their citizenship. A spoeksman [sic] for Saverin said that he made the change last September.

Mr Saverin was Facebook’s first chief financial officer but left the company after arguing with colleague Mark Zuckerberg. » | Matt Warman, Consumer Technology Editor | Monday, May 14, 2012