The term "covered expatriate" was originally defined in the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (H.R. 3103 - 104th Congress), as any expat who earned at least $100,000 per year for each of the five tax years preceding renunciation or had a net worth of $1,000,000 on the day prior to renunciation. That definition was later changed in the American Jobs Creation Act of 2004 (H.R. 4520 - 108th Congress), where "income" was changed to "tax liability" and that tax liability was indexed to inflation. Under that definition, a "covered expatriate" is any expat who had a tax liability of at least $124,000 per year for each of the five tax years preceding renunciation, in 2004 dollars or who had a net worth of $2,000,000 on the day prior to renunciation, in current dollars.

So based on that definition, in 2013, a "covered expatriate" was any expat who had a tax liability of at least $155,000 per year for each of the five tax years preceding expatriation or who had a net worth of $2,000,000 on the day prior to expatriation. In 2014, that tax liability went up to $157,000 per year for five prior years. To have that kind of tax liability, one would be reasonably expected to have at least $668,000 per year of income.

In other words, even the poorest of the expats on the government's Taxpat Lists are at the very least, moderately wealthy. But that's only the base line. Their wealth, tax base, and job-creation potential goes up from there.