beckiwoo

True but I am prepared to do that for my future children. I would like them to have two citizenships (British and Canadian) as it will give them options when they grow up

orly

All being well my kids (if I have any) should be automatically triple citizens on the day they are born. If (see earlier reply) they're unlucky enough to be born in the US they'll be quadruple citizens.

Snowy560

Great article! Thanks very much. I enjoyed reading it and the other articles it linked to.

S

FlyingDutchman6666

Question for BiP: would voting in the referendum (or a general election) possibly prevent me from losing UK domicile?

Is it true that, when holding UK domicile, HMRC will want a chunk of my assets when I die, even without having set foot in the UK for the last 30 years of my life?

Gozit

Why? Yes US citizenship comes with a few niggles such as the tax stuff and the main one I would be scared of is draft. If they tried to call me into army service i'd definitely just decline/renounce my citizenship. But you only become liable for US tax
a) After you hit over $85,000 per annum. in income (or somewhere similar)
AND
b) The amount of US tax you would potentially owe exceeds the tax you already have paid in your current country of residence. Only then would you have to pay Uncle Sam, and you'd be paying the difference, not the full amount. I'd imagine Canadian taxes and most EU taxes are higher than US so it really shouldn't be an issue.

Also, it has been known that the US likes to give trouble to those who have renounced US citizenship then try to visit the US on their foreign passports. Especially if the person was born in the US.

Also let it be clarified that if a country allows dual citizenship, they don't restrict the amount of citizenships you can hold. You can hold as many as you would like as long as the country doesn't ban dual/multiple citizenship. So little wheels would not have to renounce one of their citizenships, no need to worry

Lastly yes the passport renewal would be expensive IF you renewed all of the passports. I would recommend renewing your Canadian/US ones and ONE EU passport. For example if you were a triple citizen Canadian, Maltese and British, you don't need to keep both the Maltese and British passports current as they are both EU passports and both will grant you equal rights whilst in the EU. The Canadian one you would need. So you don't need to spare the expense to renew all of your passports if it would be redundant to do so. Some even choose to not renew the EU passport and just use a Canadian/US passport when visiting the EU but I think its worth it to have an EU passport current.

BritInParis

Do what?

beckiwoo

Enable them to have two citizenships

BritInParis

That still doesn't make any sense.

BritInParis

I'm no tax expert but voting in a UK election from abroad isn't going to affect your domicile for tax purposes. As I understand it:

UK income and assets are subject to UK tax for anyone - British, foreigner, resident or otherwise.

If you are resident outside the UK and your income and assets are also outside the UK then these won't be subject to UK tax.

If you are resident in the UK and have income/assets held outside the UK then these would be affected by, say, inheritance tax.

The threshold for inheritance tax is being raised to £1 million for couples so, assuming you're married, unless your joint assets are more than this you won't be affected by inheritance tax anyway.

beckiwoo

Well if I have child with someone that doesn't have the same nationality as me then yes it does.

Why are you asking these odd questions?

BritInParis

Because I don't understand your comment, "True but I am prepared to do that for my future children."

JonboyE

For the second sentence then yes. UK Inheritance Tax is based on domicile, not residency. If you are domiciled in the UK by birth you remain domiciled in the UK until you take steps to establish a domicile elsewhere. If you do not, then HMRC can charge IT on your worldwide assets.

Back to the first sentence, common sense would say that it should not make any difference. Tax law is not always based on common sense. You are giving HMRC an argument, "if a person has left the UK to live in Canada for the rest of their lives why are they voting in UK elections? Surely voting in a UK election suggests that ties with the UK have not been severed and that person is contemplating, at least, the possibility of a return."

BritInParis

Interesting, I wasn't aware of that difference.

https://www.gov.uk/inheritance-tax/w...de-the-uk-dies

Would being registered to vote as an overseas voter have any effect on whether someone was considered to be living abroad permanently or not? That link suggests length of residency is key rather than UK ties per se.

Gozit

I think she means she's prepared to go through the hassle of Canadian immigration and naturalisation as a Canadian citizen, so that regardless of where they are born her children will at least be dual British/Canadian citizens automatically.

BritInParis

I got that but it didn't make much sense compared when to compared the previous comments. Never mind.