Entitlement to U.S. Social Security (including spousal and survivor benefits) after expatriation has always been a difficult. During the months of January and February 2026 U.S. tax lawyer Virginia La Torre Jeker – in a series of three posts – did a “deep dive” into how expatriation impacts entitlement to Social Security benefits and the way they are taxed. The posts are available here, here and here.
Expatriation (renouncing U.S. citizenship or Green Card abandonment), affects U.S. Social Security in at least two distinct ways:
– the transition from “U.S. Person” to a nonresident alien means that (from a purely U.S. perspective) U.S. Social Security will be taxed differently. The difference from the U.S. perspective may be modified (example Canada) by tax treaties
– your citizenship (as distinct from your residence) after expatriation matters. Citizens of some countries may be required to return to the United States every six months to continue to receive their benefits.
Therefore, the impact of expatriation on the taxation and access to U.S. Social Security must be understood prior to expatriation.
Spoiler alert: Expatriation will NOT impact the capacity to receive Social Security benefits for citizens found on “List 1” (discussed in Virginia’s first blog post). This includes citizens of Canada, the U.K., etc. …
Please note that the neither the podcast nor Virginia’s post discuss the question of Social Security spousal or survivor benefits. We will leave that to another day.
No tax on Tips?
No tax on Social Security?
Haha, oh that’s just political theatre !
Flemming v. Nestor (1960), U.S. Supreme Court rules that despite making required payments into Social Security system, a person deported for Communist Party membership. has no enforceable contractual rights to Social Security benefits. Thus, it appears that any rights to Social Security benefits are illusory at best, and can be revoked by the government at will for any reason whatsoever.