Record numbers of Americans are giving up their citizenship, government data shows

5,411 individuals gave up their American citizenship last year, up 26 per cent from 2015

British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson has given up his American citizenship (Getty)

There has been a record number of Americans renouncing their citizenship and Boris Johnson is one of them.

The latest government data shows a new record of 5,411 individuals gave up their American citizenship last year, up 26 per cent from 2015.

Boris Johnson appeared in the list of names of people who renounced their American citizenship released by the US Treasury.

The Foreign Secretary, who was born in New York but has not lived there since he was five-years-old , has said his goodbye to his American passport seemingly to avoid having to report his earnings to the US Internal Revenue Service (IRS).

In 2014, Mr Johnson inisted he would not pay a large sum in capital gains tax to US authorities on the basis that he didn't live there.

He was caught up in a US law, according to which all citizens, regardless of whether they live and work in the country, are required to report their income.

In 2010 and 2014, a new law was passed in an effort to crack down on tax evasion, which obliged foreign institutions and banks, which hold assets for US citizens, to report the accounts or pay a 30 per cent tax on those who don’t share the information with the IRS.

Speaking to National Public Radio in the US in 2014, Mr Johnson said renouncing his American citizenship was “very hard”.

“You may not believe this but if you’re an American citizen, America exercises this incredible doctrine of global taxation, so that even though tax rates in the UK are far higher and I’m Mayor of London, I pay all my tax in the UK and so I pay a much higher proportion of my income in tax than I would if I lived in America.

“The United States comes after me, would you believe it, for capital gains tax on the sale of your first residence which is not taxable in Britain. They’re trying to hit me with some bill, can you believe it?”

Mr Johnson later said he had settled the tax demand with the US authorities.

Other people, who have previously renounced their American citizenship include, actor Yul Brynner, soprano Maria Callas, businessmen Kenneth and Robert Dart, investor Mark Mobius, and Eduardo Saverin, a co-founder of Facebook, Bloomberg reports.