Tina Turner Renounces Citizenship for Suburbs Outside Zurich
World renowned singer and entertainer Tina Turner revealed that she plans on renouncing her United States citizenship so that she will be able to become a citizen of Switzerland.
Turner has called the quaint Alpine community of Kuesnacht, outside of Zurich, home since 1995, with the Zuerichsee-Zeitung newspaper detailing on its website that a local council had approved her request for citizenship. However, the singer will still have to wait for approval from both state and federal authorities in the U.S.
After news of the development became public Turner wanted to express her deep love of the country, settling any doubts that her move was due to any other reasons.
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"I am very happy in Switzerland and I feel at home here. I could not imagine a better place to live," Turner told German newspaper Blick during an interview.
Turner is not the only high-profile person to relinquish their U.S. citizenship with many wealthy Americans deciding to forgo their rights as Americans.
News of billionaire co-founder of Facebook, Eduardo Saverin, renouncing his U.S. citizenship came out in May of 2012 right before the company's initial public offering.
He gave up his citizenship ahead of the social network's IPO which brought in an astounding $104 billion which was one of the largest IPO's in history. Saverin owned about 4 percent of the company which earned him just over $4 billion.
"Eduardo recently found it more practical to become a resident of Singapore since he plans to live there for an indefinite period of time," Tom Goodman, a spokesman for Saverin, previously wrote in an e-mailed statement.
About 1,780 Americans gave up their citizenships at U.S. embassies last year, which is a dramatic increase from 235 in 2008, according to Andy Sundberg, secretary of Geneva's Overseas American Academy, highlighting numbers from the government's Federal Register.
