This tax scheme also causes a lot of trouble for kids who had the bad fortune of being born in the US, without growing up there or any other real ties to the co

This tax scheme also causes a lot of trouble for kids who had the bad fortune of being born in the US, without growing up there or any other real ties to the country. You are still subject to the tax rules, are technically breaking the law every time you entry the US with you real passport (as you must use the US one even if you never got it as you as still technically a citizen). Getting rid of the citizenship is then best done around the age of eighteen, but chances are no one will tell you how much of a pain in the ass all of this is, and likely you won't even be aware of the tax potential tax burden and paperwork. Alternative is to pretend like nothing and hope you never get caught. When you finally get around to renouncing the whole thing becomes a never ending process of getting all the IRS papers and possibly back taxes in if you earn enough, getting a SSN as you can't file taxes without it, actually renouncing, and likely getting the SSN after you renounced as the whole thing takes bloody ages, and then finally figuring out exit taxes and if you are actually exempt from paying them. The exit taxes of course have two loop wholes, one of which is you were born a dual citizen _and_ still pay taxes to the other country, which means you are screwed if you are working abroad. While the other test checks net-worth, average income over the last five years and a few other things. Oh, and for the exit tax the states assumes you have sold all you assets and will tax you on the capital gains of those fictive sales... Whole system is a mess, there is no way in hell expats can fix it as their votes don't in essence don't count and it's "free" money for the state. The level at which taxes kick in for expats of course stopped being adjusted long ago as the state realized that if they stop increasing the min. amount they get more money. Though it is still being moved slightly up, it's long since stopped targeting the truly wealthy and is now hurting more and more regular people (especially if you live in a high cost country with high wages that has crept above the threshold). Throwing money and/or time out the window is no fun, so I have no problem understanding why people want to get rid of their citizenship if they can without becoming stateless.