[NamTaf]

What benefit from paying income taxes, exactly? You're not living there, so you don't benefit from any of the social services that income tax funds.

Just about every other country I can think of does not tax citizens abroad who do not earn money on their native soil. What makes you think the US system is right and all the others are wrong?

[chrsstrm]

It's a pretty flimsy metaphor, but just because I go on long trips and stay in hotels, doesn't mean I'm not obligated to pay rent on my apartment back home. My status as tenant is recognized through my contribution of my monthly rent. Without it, I have no standing. My decision to live elsewhere, either in the short term or longer, means I either have to deal with paying double housing or give up my apartment.

[ArchD]

Of course it's a flimsy metaphor. How do you make the choice to liken a country to an apartment with a long-term lease instead of a hotel that charges by the day or a club where you pay dues and can suspend your membership and due payment for a while?

If the US were an apartment, it would be a very strange apartment with numerous people entering and exiting it everyday.

[greg5green]

So it's like prison. Got it. Very American.

[sk5t]

It's a very leaky metaphor indeed... do not the millions of US citizens who neither earn income nor owe any tax receive far more benefits than the citizen abroad? Why should the working migrant be forced to foot the bill for a room for other people to inhabit?

[coopdog]

Most countries will, if you declare that you are closing up shop and living in anther another country for more than a year, allow you to cease all involvement with that country (including tax, levies, welfare), and then welcome you back as a citizen when you decide to come home. It's just too complicated otherwise.

[bandushrew]

and yet you do not want to give up your citizenship, so clearly you feel you are benefiting from some of the social benefits that your income tax funds.

[halostatue]

My sole benefit is that my parents have not died, and I don’t want some hopped-up border bureaucrat to be able to tell me that I can’t visit them (or my brother) for five years because his coffee was too hot.

Remember how much arbitrary and non-appealable power U.S. border guards have over visitors.

I get nothing else from my U.S. passport, because the only country I use that passport for is…the U.S.

[NamTaf]

I'm not an American citizen, so please go ahead and take my perceived American citizenship away - I'm happy to give it up.

I hold dual citizenship but would expect not to pay taxes in nation B when I live and work in nation A. If I were to start working in B and stop working in A, I'd expect to pay tax in B as per B's tax laws, and cease paying taxes in A. If I earn an income in both, I expect to pay taxes on the portion of income in each nation, as per the tax laws of each nation.

Similarly, because I live and work in A, I do not get the social services that B offers - for example, if I were to become unemployed, I'd expect to only utilise nation A's unemployment benefits. If I fall ill, I don't expect to be able to (and cannot) pin the cost on nation B's national healthcare services.

The reason I don't choose to give up my dual citizenship is that I enjoy the ease-of-access to both nations, if and when I choose to move between them. That access does not cost the nation anything to retain.

[udit99]

Maybe the reason to not give up citizenship is simply "The option to go back to being a US resident-citizen and enjoy all other benefits". I can't see why this benefit needs any funding.

[beedogs]

Which "social benefits" are you talking about? The ability to go home and visit my family? The ability to return to my place of birth to live and work should I so desire? The net cost to the rest of the country for these things is zero. Nil. Nada. But, somehow, these are now "social benefits" that must be supported by a tithe and not, you know, human rights?

Why does the US effectively charge a membership fee for the kinds of basic privileges every other country simply offers for free? As I said in my original post, it's unbelievably arrogant.

[Jayschwa]

People probably hesitate because it'd be such a pain in the butt to get the citizenship back.

[RDeckard]

Like not having to deal with border officers on a power-trip at the airport!