Exit Tax Calculator
Most people who renounce US citizenship or give up a green card owe no exit tax. You owe it only if you are a covered expatriate, and even then built-in gain is taxed only above the $910,000 exclusion for 2026. Check both in a minute.
2026 figures from IRS Rev. Proc. 2025-32.
Who is leaving?
Citizens who renounce are always in scope. A green card holder is in scope only after holding the card in at least 8 of the last 15 tax years.
Tap each year you held the green card
Count every tax year you held it, even for one day. A year you filed as a treaty resident of another country does not count.
10 of 15 years. You are a long-term resident, so the tests in step 2 apply.
Do you meet any of the three tests?
Meeting any one of them makes you a covered expatriate. All three are measured on your expatriation date.
Net worth of $2,000,000 or more
Meets the testEverything you own anywhere, at today's value, minus debts. Include homes, retirement accounts and business interests.
Average yearly US income tax above $211,000 for the last 5 years
Does not meet itYour total tax each year (Form 1040, line 24) minus any foreign tax credit, the way Form 8854 asks. Average it over the 5 years before you leave. Your income does not go here.
Cannot certify 5 years of US tax compliance on Form 8854
Does not meet itAre all your US returns and forms for the last 5 years filed?
This also covers FBARs and forms like 5471, 8938 and 3520.
Built-in gain on everything you own
Today's value minus what you paid, across all assets. If you owned assets before you first became a US resident, count gain only from their value on that day. Leave out IRAs, 401(k)s and pensions, which follow their own rules.
Built-in gain on everything you own
Your result for 2026
Covered expatriate
- Green card years, last 15
- 10 of 15
- Long-term resident
- Yes
- Covered expatriate
- Yes, net worth test
- Built-in gain
- $1,200,000
- Less the 2026 exclusion
- −$910,000
- Gain above the exclusion
- $290,000
- Rough federal tax at the 20% rate
- $58,000
Short-term gains, the 3.8% net investment income tax and state tax can raise this. Retirement accounts and deferred pay are taxed under their own rules.
Planning to renounce or give up your green card?
The tests are measured on your expatriation date, so the time to plan is before you pick one. Clark Shi, CPA reviews your numbers 1-on-1.
Get Your Free QuoteFree. No obligation. We respond within the same day.
How the Exit Tax Works in 2026
When a covered expatriate leaves, Section 877A treats them as selling everything they own at fair market value on the day before their expatriation date. The first $910,000 of that gain is excluded for 2026, per Rev. Proc. 2025-32. Gain above it is taxed on the final return. Most retirement accounts, pensions and other deferred pay are taxed under separate rules with no exclusion. Deferred pay for work you did outside the US before you became a US resident is left out of those separate rules.
You are a covered expatriate if you meet any one of three tests: a net worth of $2,000,000 or more, average yearly net income tax above $211,000 for the five years before you leave, or an inability to certify five years of tax compliance on Form 8854. Two narrow exceptions switch off the first two tests for some citizens. The third test has no exception.
Green card holders are in scope only as long-term residents, meaning they held the card in at least 8 of the last 15 tax years. Anyone who was not a US citizen when they first became a US resident, green card holder or later naturalized citizen, counts gain on assets they already owned only from their value on the day they first became a US resident.
Read next
- Green Card Exit Tax. Who counts as a long-term resident, how the 8-of-15 years are counted, and the basis rule that often cuts the gain.
- Form 8854 and the Exit Tax. The expatriation statement every leaving citizen and long-term resident files, and what happens if it is missed.