BigK

My previous thread got me thinking. With all the global tax implications everywhere, does dual UK/US citizenship even make sense? I am asking does it make sense for my kids who were born and live here in the US to have both UK and US passports. They'll go to college here and most likely live here.

I am sure there are a lot of things that I haven't thought of like taxes, etc. So I would like to start a Pros and Cons thread. Please add yours to enlighten me.

Pros

Cons

Pulaski

Whether you have a passport has no bearing on whether you are a citizen.

If you are British other than by descent then your children born in the US are British whether or not they have a passport, or whether their birth has been registered in the UK.

It would he difficult for the to divest themselves of their British citizenship even if they wanted to, and, if I understand the rules correctly, almost impossible to divest their British citizenship irrevocably.

My daughter is a British citizen through me, though I haven't yet registered her birth or applied for a passport. Now that she is 11 both things are on my to do list for this year - because when her five year passport expires she will be 16 and will be able to replace it with a ten year adult passport.

So to your pros and cons question - I have not thought much about it for my daughter as she is a dual citizen and can't easily change that. Unless she joins the US military as an officer, or the CIA or one of the other clandestine branches of the US government, being a British citizen is highly unlikely to impact her in any negative way.

BritInParis

British citizenship has no tax implication in and of itself. Only the US and Eritrea taxes its non-resident citizens. You can renounce your British citizenship when you reach 18 but it's expensive (£321) and there is almost zero practical benefit in doing so. Some US government jobs will requires you to do for security clearance but unless you are joining the CIA or similar this is unlikely. We often have posters stated that they had to 'give up' their British citizenship for their role in the US military when it later transpires all they actually did was surrender their British passport. Chelsea Manning had Top Secret/Sensitive Compartmented Information when she was serving in the US Army but was and still remains a British citizen due to her Welsh-born mother.

BigK

Thanks Pulaski and BritInParis! I thought as much too. My concern was largely around tax implications as they get older, but it appears only US citizens are subject to world wide taxation anyway. And through birth they cannot change the dual citizenship anyway.

BritInParis

Giving up US citizenship for long term expats due to the tax implications is becoming more and more common. It was hoped that Trump would repeal FATCA/FBAR with his recent tax reforms but that didn't happen.