Does anyone know how to denounce their British Citizenship

[Leaannb]

My 18 yo who is a dual citizen of the UK and US would like to denounce his British citizenship due to tax reasons. Any idea how?

But I agree with @JingsMahBucket Please go and ask this question on a US focused forum.

@Nomaigai

But I agree with *@JingsMahBucket* Please go and ask this question on a US focused forum.

A US focused forum won't help with renouncing his British citizenship and tax implications with the UK goverment

I give up.

@Nomaigai

I give up.

I agree the accountant idea is a good idea. Great even but not a random on Facebook. I ran one of those forums for years. Mostly crackpots

@Leaannb there’s one on FB that has lawyers and tax specialists for dual citizenship families. I’m about to head to bed but I’ll PM you with the links later.

[quote JingsMahBucket]@Leaannb there’s one on FB that has lawyers and tax specialists for dual citizenship families. I’m about to head to bed but I’ll PM you with the links later.[/quote]
Thank you so much. I've been trying to figure out how to PM you

I agree with previous posters that you need to take proper advice, which it sounds like you're preparing to do.

Just a random thought, but I would be surprised if any country allows its nationals to renounce citizenship while resident in the country. That seems absurd to me.

@Teapot13

I agree with previous posters that you need to take proper advice, which it sounds like you're preparing to do.

Just a random thought, but I would be surprised if any country allows its nationals to renounce citizenship while resident in the country. That seems absurd to me.

Another good question. I'm not sure if his being posted to the UK by orders of the US military will affect that. The only thing I know is that you can't denounce until you are a citizen of another country. Which he is. Early today there was a post aboit "sliding door' decisions. Mine is if I jad sat my fat,lazy pregnant ass at home in Newmarket and not going shopping in Cambridge I would not have this issue. He would have been born a total US citizen and not dual

You just click on Message Poster on the blue bar at the top of the posters post.

He will still have to pay tax in the UK because U.K. tax is based on residency not nationality. Do you really think all non-British nationals living in the UK don’t pay any tax?

OP - this is a complicated area and you need proper tax advice.

I’d be surprised if his income from employment in the US military would be taxable in the UK whilst he is stationed there at the instruction of his employer, even if he is a UK citizen. My recollection is double tax treaties usually exclude military personnel and embassy staff from paying tax in the host country (here, the UK).

Alternatively, if he is liable to UK tax on his employment income from the US military, all his US citizen colleagues will be too and renouncing UK citizenship won’t change anything (the UK doesn’t tax on the basis of nationality, if you work in the UK, you pay tax in the UK - it doesn’t matter what citizenship you have).

If he owns property in the UK which is rented out, yes he will be taxed on that assuming, in broad terms, the annual rent exceeds the UK personal tax allowance which is about GBP12.5k (am currently UK expat so don’t have most recent numbers). He should be paying tax on this regardless of whether he is resident in the UK or US.

The official information on how to renounce (not denounce - that is completing different) is here:
www.gov.uk/renounce-british-nationality/resume-your-british-nationality

Please get proper advice before doing this.

Does your son definitely have British citizenship? Unlike in the US, he does not become a citizen simply by virtue of the fact he was born on British soil. Are either you or your husband British? Did you apply for British citizenship on his behalf?

Assuming he is a British citizen, given that Brits are not taxed on worldwide income in the same way as US citizens, I cannot see the benefit to doing this.

There are tax equalization treaties in place to prevent expats having to pay tax in two countries. $60k is well under the threshold at which other rules may apply.

Another (hopefully) helpful link: www.taxesforexpats.com/uk/us-tax-preparation-in-uk.html
Scroll toward the bottom for more info on taxation of worldwide income (ie if he rents out his US property whilst away).

I Googled: giving up uk citizenship

and this was the first result - I think www.gov.uk is a pretty reliable source, so not sure why the 'conflicting information'?

www.gov.uk/renounce-british-nationality

There are very few countries that tax people based on their citizenship only, and UK is not one of them. US is indeed. So I really don't think you will achieve the result you're looking for by the action you're contemplating.

Why would he use NHS when he has always used US military benefits.

Because they don't cover everything, we got US personnel when I worked in a hospital in Oxford.

Before you look at citizenship have a look at how he will be treated as a US service person, it may well be that the base he is on is treated as US soil.

@SherryPalmer

He will still have to pay tax in the UK because U.K. tax is based on residency not nationality. Do you really think all non-British nationals living in the UK don’t pay any tax?

Military personnel very rarely pay to the government of the country they are stationed.

For example if you were British and stationed in Cyprus you would only pay tax to the British government.

de·nounce
/dəˈnouns/

Learn to pronounce

verb
verb: denounce; 3rd person present: denounces; past tense: denounced; past participle: denounced; gerund or present participle: denouncing
1 publicly declare to be wrong or evil."the Assembly denounced the use of violence"

Not sure the UK welcomes US service people who publicly declare British citizenship to be evil.

Maybe though. Anything is possible.

I have dual nationality. I'd pay a considerable amount of money to keep it. I did pay a considerate amount to get it. I think he'd be mad to renounce it but I made some pretty stupid decisions at that age.

I suspect this is a goady post though. I might pop over to a US site and ask about denouncing American citizenship. See what reception I get.

Am
I the only one who really wants to know the story of the shopping trip??? Come on OP!!!

No advice re tax, but if your son is living in the U.K. for 4 years, isn’t it a possibility that he might meet a partner over here and want to stay? Which would be a lot harder presumably if he gives up his citizenship

Well renouncing us citizenship is closer to denouncing - have to get us tax all in order then pay around £3k and make appointment at embassy to be interviewed as to reasons and understanding that that’s it for ever (basic feeling is they think you’re a bit mad to want to do this and want to check) and then to officially renounce in front of the us flag !!!
The thought of boris going through this to avoid capital gains tax on one of his love shack/family/affair set ups (I forget which it was - there have been a few) homes is scarred on my brain.

Please get some proper advice.

I'd just like to denounce the former dual US and UK citizen in number 10 Downing Street.

I would look into this carefully. American citizens are taxed on their Worldwide income. British citizens aren't and can be non resident for tax purposes. I have American friends who've ended up paying tax twice. I wouldn't personally choose that route.

You mean renounce, not denounce.

I am the only one who is bemused that someone who used to “run a forum for crackpots” would think a British based chat forum is the best place to seek this advice?

Unless it’s Carrie or Marina trying repatriate Boris back to the US.

If he's working on a us base in the uk then quite often he's be covered by SOFA - pp mentioned this and it's when military staff don't have to pay tax where they are stationed.

To be honest I'd expect him to get some degree of guidance from his employer to figure this out. It's complex for them as well.