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this post was submitted on 14 Mar 2024
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Asklemmy
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If you were born in the USA, lived in Germany your whole life, and only recently learned of your US citizenship, you need to seek legal advice from a German law firm or from the government. I suspect that getting your US passport was a huge mistake. You may want to contest the validity of your citizenship, as it doesn't sound like it offers you any benefits, and might actually be a financial liability.
OP read this, they're absolutely right - lawyer up!
Cause in the U. S. if you want to renounce your U. S. citizenship, you must settle your debts - which includes filing your U. S. Taxes.
... and yes, as a U. S. Citizen you need to file U. S. Taxes *even if you've never set foot in the U. S. *.
Note: there are double taxation laws between the U. S. and Germany, which prevent you from needing to pay taxes in U. S. (up to 100k / year or so), but you still must file them.
Also, as a U. S. Citizen, you'll need to file annually a FBAR with the IRS. This is basically a disclosure to the IRS that you have non-u.s. bank accounts (that exceed, in total, 20k usd / year).
The point being is that, in theory, there could be fines for not doing this, which (in theory) you would have to pay before being allowed to renounce your citizenship.
In practice, the IRS is pretty approachable - so you probably won't have an issue, but you'll definitely want decide if you want to keep the U. S. Citizenship (and the work associated with it: annual taxes and fbar) or renounce it.
The (only) upshot of filing U. S. taxes abroad if you have kids is that you qualify for a Child Tax Credit. Which amounts to 1000 usd / kid / year (I don't know if the kids need to have U. S. Citizenship or not)
Afaik your kids (under 18) are US citizens if you yourself are a citizen.
I don't disagree, but why would him getting a US passport matter? Either way, he would still be a US Citizen.
Because getting the passport and traveling with it makes it pretty official. If you've never held a passport, it could be easier to argue that the citizenship isn't valid at all, rather than having to go through the very expensive process of renouncing.
I don't see why that distinction matters. The US has documentation saying OP was born in the US. That alone is enough to say he's a citizen.
You're saying that it doesn't matter because the US government is able to prove his citizenship, but that isn't in question. The crux of this matter would be whether OP was ignorant of his citizenship and if that ignorance would have any relevance to his case.
Securing official documents only available to American citizens makes it more difficult to argue that he was ignorant of his status as an American citizen. He likely could still make a compelling argument (provided he acts quickly), but it does make it a bit more difficult.
Because the US taxes it citizens. Regardless where they live
(oversimplified)
You can be a US Citizen without a passport. That was half the point of OP's case lol
Sorry, was high and missed the point