I'm both an Italian citizen and an American citizen, which I suppose makes me also an EU citizen. Could I use my dual citizenship to get tax breaks in European tax havens if I live there? Or does my American citizenship prevent that? I saw a thread on Switzerland and I wondered if having dual citizenship would have any bearing on that discussion, or if the dual citizenship could be used in other ways for tax breaks.
that has been discussed in ET already. As far as I remeber Netherlands and Lithuania were the ones that I thought had the best tax treatment. If yuo have Italian citizenship you could pull it oof, if you're a US citizen - its illegal unless you form an expensive to-do entity, and then it still remains "shady".
You might have to consult with an attorney on this one, but I think you are wrong assuming you have dual citizenship. I'm about to apply for US citizenship and the law seems to be very strict on it, if you are applying for the US citizenship, you automatically agree to give up your other citizenship. Other countries do allow it, but not the states. You actually have to obtain an exit visa from your own country or some do some other procedure of that nature. The key thing is if you use your passport issued by another country while already being a US citizen, that constitutes treason in the eyes of the US law, according to what I saw and if the authorities find out, you risk forfeiting your US citizenship.
My father is an Italian citizen and my mother is an American citizen. I was born in American and have lived here my whole life. I'm pretty sure I'm also an Italian citizen, although I could be wrong. Last time I visited Italy, I had to apply for an exemption from military service, so I'm assuming that means I'm an Italian citizen. I could be wrong. I suppose I'll find out when I try to get an Italian passport next month.
Vlad, the problem of having to surrender your current nationality upon becoming a US citizen can be circumvented, albeit illegally, if you were born in a country that denotes citizenship rights to people born within its borders or to people born of parents of its nationality. So, the process becomes, acquire US citizenship, surrender current (Italian, Dutch, Hungarian, for example) and then reacquire the former. At least that's how I conceive of the solution in theory.
I'm sure that Italy would probably consider you as their citizen if you ask them. What I was trying to say was that according to the US law, if you are a US citizen, you are only entitled to US citizenship. If you act in any manner as if still maintaining your prior citizenship (assuming someone was born outside the US) or if you apply for citizenship in any other country while already having US citizenship (either by birth or whatever other reason), than the law (at least according to what I vaguely remember) states that you are commiting an act of treason and can lose your US citizenship. In my case, it will be very tempting to use my Ukrainian passport when I got back to visit my parents (no visa, no need for any stupid registration, much lower fees for everything etc), but it will be very easy to track what passport I used when. I'm not sure how strict they are doing it, but I'd rather not risk it So before you get your Italian passport next month, I recommend you either consult an immigration attorney, or at least search the web for the respective laws. I'm sure if you run an search on US dual citizenship, you'll get lots of hits and comments from people in similar situations.
How is this so? You exit the US with your US passport, enter the Ukraine with your Ukrainian passport and re-enter the US with your US passport. Not so?
Yes, except that there are possible complications. First, when I enter Ukraine with my Ukrainian passport, they'll be checking for US exit records in it. Secondly, assuming the first problem is overlooked, if I use my Ukrainian passport to leave Ukraine, I need a US visa - thus I'd have to use my US passport to leave it, and I guarantee they'll check to see when I entered and if I had registered my "foreign presence" there, which I woudn't have if I enter using the Ukrainian passport. Thirdly, I'm not quite sure about this one, but when I come back to the US, assuming that the previous problems were not discovered (very unlikely), I think they will also check to see where I was when I left the US. And there will not be any stamp trail after the point I left the US. So clearly, I left, came back and don't seem to have been anywhere, showing that smth is not right and they'll have to be dumb not to realize you used my other passport. I'm not an expert in this area and I admit I may be wrong about some of the details (especially concerning what they check upon re-entry to the US with a US passport), but I'm sure there will be problems in other countries of the nature I describe. At least in some of them.
Switzerland is not part of the EU, so there laws have no bearing on your situation. Austria Belgium Denmark Finland France United Kingdom Sweden Germany Greece Ireland Spain Portugal Netherlands Luxembourg Italy Netherlands and Luxembourg probably offer the most tax effective places to trade from. Runningbear