About seven million American expatriates — nearly a million in Canada — are going through tax hell because of a sudden Congressional interest in catching tax cheats, and America’s unique citizenship-based income tax policy.
American Citizens Abroad (ACA) has called on the United States to end this citizenship-based income tax policy and tax based on residence like the rest of the world. It points out that Americans living and working in other countries pay taxes in those countries, usually at significantly higher levels than U.S. “homelanders.” The ACA is getting the Congressional brushoff – polite conversation, “I feel your pain, but nothing doing.”
But what if other countries fight fire with fire and emulate America’s citizenship-based tax policy, demanding tax compliance from America’s approximately 50 million immigrants?
For the sake of argument, let’s see what might happen if Kenya did that:
