Tina Turner Renounces US Citizenship in Favor of Swiss

By Dawn Cranfield

Tina Turner Renounces US Citizenship in Favor of Swiss

Legendary American icon, Tina Turner, is renouncing her United States citizenship in favor of becoming a Swiss national.  Turner, has been granted permission for citizenship by the local council, however, she is still waiting approval from state and federal authorities to make it official.

Turner has lived with her German boyfriend, music manager Erwin Bach, in Kuensacht, a suburb of Zürich, since the mid 1990’s.  She speaks fluent German and says, “I’m very happy in Switzerland and I feel at home here.  I cannot imagine a better place to live.” (dailymail.co)

Living in Switzerland has not slowed the septuagenarian down; Turner is still enjoying fame.  In 2009, her spiritual album peaked at number seven on the Swiss charts.  A follow-up album, Children Beyond also made the charts two years later.

So, why would Turner seemingly suddenly want to renounce her US citizenship

in favor or Swiss citizenship?

Erwin Bach and Tina Turner

“Turner’s agent told Zuerichsee-Zeitung the singer wanted to ‘clarify her situation’.” (dailymail.co)

While it seems she simply wanted to root herself permanently in one country instead of keeping one foot on each continent, as soon as her decision was announced, the media immediately began to interpret her intentions.  The rumor-mill began to churn and Turner was compared to Gerard Depardieu, Denise Rich, and Eduardo Saverin.

Depardieu famously announced this month he was renouncing his French citizenship in favor of Russia due to his country’s high tax rate.  Russian President Vladimir Putin offered him citizenship almost instantaneously.

“But Forbes says of the singer’s move: ‘There’s little to suggest taxes motivate the decision, and Swiss rates are high.’” (dailymail.co)

Jo Matherne, the mayor of Turner’s hometown, Brownsville, Tennessee, said she was “surprised” by the news and was unsure how residents would respond.

Matherne seems somewhat chagrined at Turner’s decision, opining, “I think anytime a person, whether they’re world-renowned or the most meek and mild, makes the decision to change their citizenship we need to step back and think what causes that decision.” (foxnews.com)

One would think that after almost 20 years, a town’s most famous resident would have been missed long before now.  The fact that she has chosen to live out of the country for all of this time has practically made her a Swiss citizen by proxy anyway.

Kuensacht

This is like any other relationship; why beg her to stay.  If she does not want to be an American any longer, let her go.  Others are clamoring at the gates to come in to the land of the free and the home of the brave; we cannot do enough to fend them away.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2268405/Tina-Turner-renounces-American-citizenship-Swiss.html#ixzz2J6HQnfFt

http://www.foxnews.com/entertainment/2013/01/25/tina-turner-becoming-swiss-citizen-giving-up-us-passport/?intcmp=features#ixzz2J6IFlC6O