Why does the US allow dual citizenship?

[Winston Smith]

Originally Posted by KellyXY

Jury duty is usually based on your residence - so regardless of where you live or what citizenship(s) you have your only obligations would be for courts that have jurisdiction wherever you live.

Yes, perhaps true, but my point is that though dual citizen ship "gets you more" (as it were), it isn't a free ride. By having dual, you obligate yourself in ways that you don't by avoiding dual. For instance, I could reside permanently in the U.S. as a foreign national under my "green card" and not be obligated to American jury duty, but still be obligated to serve compulsary military service (or whatever equivalent) in my birth country. As soon as I accept U.S. citizenship in addition to my birth citizenship, my obligations deepen -- even though those obligations may be based on residency.

Now, the U.S. has an out. If you don't live in the U.S., you don't have to serve jury duty, but you must still pay your taxes, which strikes me as an odd "pay to play" rule that almost no other country in the world has. European countries require taxes based on residency, not citizenship.

[Petrovich]

So you saying US citizen who don't live in US and say permanently resides in Britain has to pay taxes to US IRS on money he makes in Britain?

AFAIK That is only works like this if its US registered "corporation" that works overseas, but for an individual this makes no common sense. I think he would have to file taxes with IRS yearly, but but he would claim no income made or whatever as he supposed to do in that case.

He would most definitely have pay taxes in Britain for working there regardless of citizenship.

[Winston Smith]

Originally Posted by Petrovich

So you saying US citizen who don't live in US and say permanently resides in Britain has to pay taxes to US IRS on money he makes in Britain?

AFAIK That is only works like this if its US registered "corporation" that works overseas, but for an individual this makes no common sense. I think he would have to file taxes with IRS yearly, but but he would claim no income made or whatever as he supposed to do in that case.

He would most definitely have pay taxes in Britain for working there regardless of citizenship.

I'm not an expert on it, but whether it makes sense or not, depends on who's asking. I'm sure it's great for the U.S. Government. The following is direct from the IRS:

"If you are a U.S. citizen or resident alien, the rules for filing income, estate, and gift tax returns and paying estimated tax are generally the same whether you are in the United States or abroad. Your worldwide income is subject to U.S. income tax, regardless of where you reside."

U.S. Citizens and Resident Aliens Abroad

[KellyXY]

Winston Smith is correct, but you do get to 1) Exclude up to a certain amount of your "earned" income and not be taxed by the U.S. on it if you meet certain residency and/or physical presence tests and 2) In most cases take a credit for any tax paid on the same income to a foreign country (one of the new Obamacare taxes on investment income over a certain amount is a notable exception - another one is tax levied by a country "blacklisted" by the U.S. government).