Money Australia - August 2019

Watchoutif youareanaccidentaldualcitizen

Double

trouble

STORY SUSA N H E LY

MY MONEY DUAL CITIZENSHIP

I

t is not just Australian politicians who are shocked to discover they are dual citizens.

There are plenty of unsuspecting dual citizens finding themselves in hot water.

While politicians have been kicked out of parliament, other dual citizens face big

bills for taxes they never dreamed they owed.

Depending on your dual citizenship, you could be obliged to pay tax on your

income, capital gains tax when you sell your principal property and investment properties,

plus tax on the earnings from your self-managed superannuation fund (SMSF). Australians

don’t have to pay inheritance tax but other countries aren’t so lenient.

Born in the USA
Martin was eight when he left the US with his family and moved to Australia. He has been
back three times to visit and is now 52. It wasn’t until he was filling out some investment
forms for his SMSF that he realised he had a big problem. The global investment bank asked
for his renunciation of US citizenship form when it saw on Martin’s passport that he was
born in the US. Martin didn’t have one. He had kept his US citizenship even though he was
an Australian citizen because his US passport allowed him to access shorter immigration
not his real name queues at the airport.