Business

Facebook co-founder Eduardo Saverin renounces US citizenship ahead of IPO, possibly reducing tax bill

Facebook co-founder Eduardo Saverin has renounced his US citizenship ahead of the social network’s initial public offering, according to a new report.

The move may reduce the tax bill he is expected to incur after shares of Facebook go public. The company is expected to be valued at nearly $100 billion and raise as much as $14 billion in its IPO.

Saverin’s stake in the company is about two percent, according to The Wall Street Journal. Even if Facebook shares price toward the low end of the stated range — last said to be between $28 and $35 a share — Saverin would stand to make several billion dollars.

Renouncing his US citizenship would presumably lower his tax bill on that fortune. Unlike the US, Singapore does not have a capital gains tax.

Saverin’s name appeared on a list of names, published by the Internal Revenue Service, of people who filed to renounce their US citizenship as of April 30, according to Bloomberg News.

In a statement, Tom Goodman, a spokesman for Saverin, said, “Eduardo recently found it more practical to become a resident of Singapore since he plans to live there for an indefinite period of time.”

The Brazilian-born billionaire, who moved to the US in 1992 and became a citizen in 1998, became a household name in 2010 when his skirmishes with Zuckerberg over the future of Facebook were dramatized in the Hollywood film “The Social Network.”