Genuine question. We Americans are taught from childhood to be thankful that we live in the most free nation in the world. What does that actually mean? I know we have freedom to own guns, but other than that do we have anything else?
Does the United States actually have any freedoms that most developed nations don't already have?
Birthright citizenship is something that really gets taken for granted in the US, but is not universal across developed countries.
It's the norm in the Americas and rare in the other continents. Ireland used to be the only country in Europe that had it but has since dropped it. Colombia is the only American nation not to have it.
a buddy of mine went to ireland twice with his wife, a UK citizen, probably 20 yrs ago so their kids could have dual citizenship. smart move i think.
Dual citizenship also has its flaws. Sure you get to enjoy the perks of being able to live in two countries at once, but realistically you are only going to be living in one. Taxes and laws on the other hand, still apply regardless of where you live.
Only the US, Eritrea, and Myanmar tax overseas citizens.
And of course I’m one of them 🤦♂️ I’m a couple of 8 hour flights away from the US and spent over 24 hours on my taxes this year in which I didn’t even owe anything.
If you were outside of the US the entire year and paid taxes elsewhere, you will likely pay nothing as long as you didn’t make money in the US or due to a job based there. You have to legally fill out a tax form, but actually getting a bill if truly living abroad will be not likely.
A friend of mine was born in the States but live his entire life in the UK. He was asked by his employer to work at the US site for a couple of years so went to the embassy to get his passport. As part of the process he had to fill out a tax return and ended up getting hit with back taxes despite not having set foot in the country since he was 6 months old.
There is something like a $100k earning limit on not paying taxes and he exceeded that due to the specialist nature of his job. The bill pretty much wiped out his life savings.
It's so screwed up; the idea that anyone could be expected to pay into the US govt while not even living there nor using the infrastructure and (measly) services provided drives me up the wall
It's not really that screwed up. Dude at any point had the option to renounce his citizenship and chose not to. It's not like he was forced to be an American.
On the flip side, being an American citizen has a lot of benefits, even for those living outside its borders.
I believe one of the traditional principles of our government is supposedly "no taxation without representation." Americans abroad are not represented in government; there are no seats in Congress for representatives of Americans living abroad. There are estimated to be at least ~4 million US citizens living abroad, comparable in population to Kentucky and Oregon.
Also, if the US government believes you renounced your citizenship because of the international taxes, you are prohibited from stepping foot on American soil ever again, for any reason.
Foreign spouses get taxed too, as the family income gets taxed. It basically limits the autonomy of American citizens by putting unreasonable price tags on international living and marriage. Its about control. Our allied Western nations do not do the same to their citizens. It was set up by the Obama administration supposedly to target rich tax dodgers, but obviously it causes massive collateral damage due to the relatively low income trigger.
A UK politician, I think a mayor of London, lived all of his >50 years in the UK, but was technically born in the US, without his knowledge. He visited the US for political reasons and he was hit in hundreds of thousands of dollars in back taxes by the IRS. He paid them and immediately renounced his citizenship. I don't know if he got hit by the visitation ban.
What benefits outside the borders would one get?
Priority rescue is a big one. It doesn't come up in a lot of people's lives, but in the event of a natural disaster/war/other emergency, no other nation on earth has the infrastructure in place to get its citizens out like the US does.
Hit by a tsunami in Japan? AFSOC pararescuemen will come pick you up off of your roof with a V 22. Russian tanks run across the border while on holiday in Finland? You get a next day ticket on a C17 after taking shelter at the American embassy, safest place in the country at that moment. You accidentally pack some CBD oil in your bag on the way to the Phillipines and get sentenced to death for drug trafficking? Don't worry, the president has a war criminal lying around somewhere they'll trade to get you back.
But the US is a complete anomaly, requiring citizens to pay money to renounce their citizenship; he would also have to be caught up on any taxes that he already owes.
If the Founding Fathers could see how onerous our tax system has become, they’d kick all of our asses for putting up with it.
There’s no sound reason your friend should owe taxes and he’d be completely justified to have his own little tax revolt, but then he’d likely get to meet the realest American mafia — the IRS.
Former UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson had not lived in the US since he was 5 but the IRS sent him a bill as he is, or at least was, a dual citizen. https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-30932891.amp
I have Australian and Canadian citizenship and never paid a cent of my money back to Australia for taxes. My brother in law is US and Canada I have no idea if he paid taxes but I know he has to do a tax return there every year.
Cool to have dual, my niece even has tripple: Chinese (because born in Hong Kong), Australian, because mum is Australian (could get Italian too because grandpa has Italian, but don’t know if the mum could transfer to that niece) and French because dad is French. Brother only has two, because Singapore does not allow citizenship if you’re born there,but you have to serve in the army! So they will be out before he turns 18!
I could have been American and Dutch, but my parents moved back 3 months before I was born.
My uncle gave up his dual citizenship (born in GB but came here as a baby) because it caused problems he didn’t want to deal with. That he never went back to the UK ever.
What problems did him having UK citizenship cause?
He said he couldn’t register to vote with dual citizenship. But he turned 18 in 1964 so possibly it’s true and possibly he’s full of shit. But I do know he gave up to dual citizenship.