Boris Johnson Pays "Outrageous" US Tax Bill

[barryqwalsh]

Boris Johnson, seen above on a previous visit to the United States, was born in New York and still holds an American passport - as well as a British one.

That meant he was liable to pay some capital gains tax in the US, something Mr Johnson described as "outrageous" when he revealed the bill late last year.

Boris Johnson Pays Outrageous US Tax Bill LBC

 

[barryqwalsh]

I thought Boris wrote an article in the Spectator magazing, saying that he had renounced his America citizenship?

 

[Politico]

His tax liability was 7.5%. Boo freaking hoo.

 

[barryqwalsh]

Boris’s dilemma: relinquish his US passport or pay American tax

Boris s dilemma relinquish his US passport or pay American tax Spectator Blogs

 

[Statistikhengst]

His tax liability was 7.5%. Boo freaking hoo.

I bet that most middle class Americans would like to only have to pay 7.5% in any kind of extra tax.

 

[barryqwalsh]

Who, What, Why: Could Boris Johnson be UK PM and then US president?




BBC News - Who What Why Could Boris Johnson be UK PM and then US president

 

[barryqwalsh]

Last Sunday lunchtime we were boarding a flight to Mexico, via Houston, Texas, and we presented six valid British passports. As soon as the Continental Airlines security guy saw my passport, he shook his head. ‘Were you born in New York?’ he asked. ‘Have you ever carried an American passport?’

Yes, I said, but it had long since expired. ‘I am afraid we have a problem,’ he said. ‘The US Immigration say you have to travel on an American passport if you want to enter the United States.’ B-but I’m British, I said, and my children chorused their agreement. Had the guy stuck around a moment longer, I would have told him how jolly British I was — but luckily for him he’d gone off in search of reinforcements.

When the ranking officer arrived, the story was the same. ‘I’m sorry, sir,’ he said, ‘but you’ll have to go to the US Embassy tomorrow morning and get a new American passport.’ But I don’t want an American passport, I said, inspiration striking me. I tell you what: I renounce my American citizenship. I disclaim it. I discard it.

‘That’s not good enough, sir,’ he said. ‘I need some official document saying that you are no longer American,’ and that, of course, is the point of this piece.
I make this formal, public, and, I hope, legally valid renunciation, because as a result of this moronic rule I had to ask my wife (who bore this latest cock-up with amazing good humour) to take the children on her own to Houston, and I then had to spend a stonking sum on another ticket. Because the Americans insisted I was American, and that it was only as an American that I could travel to America, America was the one country that I had to avoid.

So I circumnavigated America. I flew via Madrid, managing to beat the rest of my family to Mexico by 45 minutes; and yet I still seethe. It’s not just the stupidity of the rule that gets me. It’s the arrogance. What other country insists that because you can be one of its nationals, then you must be one of its nationals? Imagine if we told all British-born Americans that they could not arrive in this country except by use of a British passport.

American Passport - Mayor Boris Johnson