I found out about 3 years ago that I'm technically an American citizen. I was never close to my father but starting connecting more as an adult and I learned that he became an American citizen shortly before I was born and that this makes me an American citizen.
I was genuinely excited and decided to get a US passport and start planning a trip there. Money was always an issue but I finally saved enough to visit for a few weeks in the upcoming summer.
However, on reddit I discovered that American citizens are required to pay taxes when overseas and I have obviously never filed a tax return in the US. This has changed my plans dramatically because I'm afraid of the consequences I could face. Furthermore, even if it's safe for me to visit I'm curious to know if living there is at all an option given the fact I haven't paid taxes at all.
I've been an American citizen my entire life but I haven't paid taxes a single time. Will I face any consequences if I step foot in the US?
byu/pisowiec inpersonalfinance
Posted by pisowiec
46 Comments
You have to file but “Foreign Earned Income Exclusion (FEIE): This allows you to exclude a significant amount of foreign-earned income from your U.S. taxes. For the 2025 tax year, the exclusion limit is $130,000 per person. To qualify, you must have a tax home in a foreign country and meet either the bona fide residence test or the physical presence test.
See e.g., [https://www.irs.gov/individuals/international-taxpayers/foreign-earned-income-exclusion](https://www.irs.gov/individuals/international-taxpayers/foreign-earned-income-exclusion)
Full disclosure: Speaking from personal experience, I did not know I needed to file (I was raised overseas) and never got asked about the matter. It’s been 20y since I moved to the US after grad school and never heard from the IRS about those years (never made more than the threshold as a student)
1. Have you confirmed you are actually a citizen? What you are describing doesn’t sound clear cut to me.
2. Call up a tax professional with expertise in U.S. cross-border taxation. There are too many variables and intricacies here, and you need to hash them out with someone who actually knows what they’re talking about.
Do you even officially have your citizenship or a social security number?
Taxes and debts do not restrict your travels across the US border.
And if saving money to get to the US is a concern you probably never made enough money to need to lay taxes.
This is fully 100% a lawyer topic. You need someone who wears two hats, as an immigration attorney and as a tax attorney. Ignore replies here. Your case is too complicated for Internet Strangers.
The situation you described does not automatically make you an American citizen, your dad had to file a “consular report of birth abroad” at a US Embassy, unless you were born in the US
Weeeeellllll, [start here](https://www.irs.gov/businesses/international-businesses/united-states-income-tax-treaties-a-to-z) to figure how fucked you may or may not be. It’s possible you owe nothing.
You can also call the IRS & ask what exactly you need to do (if anything) to square your revenue situation.
You may not be able to obtain a US passport if you have outstanding tax debt.
As for whether you can visit the US, if you come here on your passport from somewhere else I don’t believe you’ll have any issues. (Odds of being randomly arrested stepping off the plane low, but never zero.)
~~Your foreign citizenship would, at least in theory, protect you as long as you never claimed or asserted your US citizenship.~~
~~(*Technically* you would have to renounce your US Citizenship to be sure, the US can claim sovereign jurisdiction over you as a citizen even if you never assert your citizenship, but for what is likely a small tax debt owed by someone who has never obligated the US government I don’t think they would.)~~
ETA: I see from another comment that you already have your US passport – so congratulations, you’ve asserted US/Dual citizenship and are subject to US law & jurisdiction. 🙂
Whether to keep your US citizenship or formally renounce it is a decision many miles outside the scope of personal finance 🙂
Find an immigration attorney in the US and ask them what this looks like. That’s the only real answer. Depending what country you’re coming from the US and that country may have some sort of tax treaty where paying taxes to that other country is sufficient, or only some reduced amount would be taxable to the US.
Have you actually gotten a passport? Normally there’s a “birth abroad” sort of form a person has to fill out shortly after the baby of a citizen is born outside the US. I don’t know what doing this process looks like long after you were born.
All US citizens have Social Security numbers and that’s tied to your income and taxes and social security. That’s the closest we have to a national ID. If you come to the US permanently or intend to live here the rest of your life the payment Social Security gives you when you’re old will depend on your earning history so it’d behoove you to get into the system in the US.
The passport system isn’t connected to checking tax payment status when you cross the border lol so you’re probably safe for visits. If you move to the US and start working here you will need to be filing taxes and stuff like that. The first time that happens you’ll probably want to engage with an accountant because there will probably be a bunch of paperwork.
I would do some more research, but I believe you can safely visit. Immigration is not linked to IRS records in that way.
I also think you could safely start living in the U.S. and start paying taxes. If the IRS has no records of any income in past years they would have no basis to question you about it. Unless you’re fairly wealthy you wouldn’t owe any taxes anyway.
If your dad is a citizen then you can get citizenship BUT this doesn’t mean you are a immediate citizen so that’s a start. Then, no you don’t have to worry about traveling here etc. just do your taxes as such in due time IF you move to america. You are 1 person in millions. Changes of then getting u are slim slim.
There are millions of people who live here and never pay taxes. I do not think it will affect you visiting at all. If you decide to live here just ask a good attorney if it will impact you in any way.
Pay taxes on what? It sounds like you don’t earn an income or own any property in America, or have ever been to America, what exactly what you be expected to pay taxes on?
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I’ve never heard of someone who wasn’t born in the U.S. getting citizenship just because one of their parents was approved. I’ve heard of the child getting citizenship if the mother gave birth to the child on U.S. soil but that’s not the case here. I’m thinking someone is telling you what they THINK they know. If I were you, I would try to find a professional in this to confirm.
Unless your parents registered your birth with the us consulate, you’re not yet registered.
Before you come to the US I would say be very careful. Our government is unlawfully arresting people all the time especially immigrants. The current political regime has no respect for the rule of law. It’s arrest first, and ask questions later. I would definitely consult with a tax professional to find out about your obligations.
The cutoff is actually higher than most people realise. I am American, lived in the UK for 13 years and made a decent living. I never made enough to owe anything in the states. It’s around $120k a year. Unless you earn more than that, you don’t owe anything.
As a US citizen living outside of the US, you are required to file US taxes every year. Depending on your income, you may not owe any taxes.
You are not automatically a US citizen, you have to apply for citizenship,pay fees, pass background check…etc.
You don’t automatically have to file taxes unless you own taxes.
Do you have a Social Security number? If not, then you’re probably under the radar.
You definitely need a lawyer on this one. Owing tax and failure to file a tax return are two different issues. He could possibly be required to file a tax return without actually Owing tax. I don’t know.
If you are a citizen, you can basically hire a CPA and file all the missing returns. I had a family members lax on filing returns, they went back about 10 years and found out the IRS actually owed him money lol.
I really don’t think not paying your taxes will restrict your travel. I have known numerous Americans living in the USA for years that never filed. It’s pretty rare for it to catch up to you.
The first one here will probably mean you owe nothing.
Foreign Earned Income Exclusion (FEIE): If you meet certain requirements (either the Bona Fide Residence Test or the Physical Presence Test), you can exclude a significant amount of your foreign-earned income (up to $130,000 per person for the 2025 tax year) from U.S. taxation.
Foreign Tax Credit (FTC): This allows you to claim a dollar-for-dollar credit against your U.S. tax liability for income taxes you paid to a foreign government.
Tax Treaties: The U.S. has income tax treaties with many countries to help resolve issues of double taxation and determine which country has the primary right to tax certain types of income.
So this happened to me. I didn’t know I was a US citizen since birth until I was 27. I moved to the US after I got my passport but didn’t straighten out my tax situation until I arrived in the US. Contact a tax professional who has cross border tax experience. You’re gonna wanna get your back taxes straightened out (and start filing yearly after) so you’re all good with the IRS. I had to pay out the ass to my accountant but didn’t pay anything to the IRS iirc. I didn’t have any issues crossing the border when I moved before I got the taxes dealt with btw.
Do you have a social security number?
You probably don’t owe anything but you still need to file the taxes. If you made under 130k a year it’s exempt. Talk to an accountant to do the tax returns and you will be fine.
From your post, it’s hard to know if you got a US passport or not. Does the US government have a record of you being a citizen? If you’ve never applied, then it won’t become an issue, but if you claim citizenship and have worked for a long time without filing taxes, it could be a problem. However, if you don’t make so much money in the country, I don’t think it would be a huge deal, but I am not a tax accountant. You can get caught up on your taxes if you work with an accountant and file missing years.
You’re good. If you do owe anything, which I doubt you will, the IRS will work with you.
Not paying taxes as someone who’s here on a work visa is a completely different story.
without income, how are you surviving?
My mother-in-law stopped paying and filing taxes in the US, and she was able to go back-and-forth between the US and her country. After a couple years she decided she want to spend more time in the US so she had to hire an international tax lawyer to help her file her missing returns and figure out payment. Most likely if you’ve been paying taxes in your current country, you won’t have to pay much in the US, but the lawyer fees are expensive
Unless you are absolutely making insane amounts of money for the typical 28 year old, its unlikely you owe taxes. A lot of countries have tax agreements with the US to avoid double taxation, and there’s also a foreign income tax exemption up to X amount.
Americans are required to **file** every year.
That will not impact your travels. But you should talk to a qualified financial professional to see what can be done to file for back taxes. You may even be owed money like the COVID era stimulus checks. And definitely get situated if you ever decide to live here.
Do you have the certificate of citizenship? A US passport? Until you have 1 of them, you’re really not .
You *may* or *may not* need to file or pay taxes.
1. You only need to *file* if you make more than a minimum (currently 14,600)
2. US has treaties with many countries so that taxes paid there count, so if you’re in one of those countries, you do not need to pay any US taxes, unless you make a ton of money (more than 100k USD, number changes each year)
You are getting a lot of terrible advice here. You almost certainly don’t earn enough to owe US taxes. You don’t need a lawyer. If you plan on moving to the US then you could use the “streamlined program” to get caught up without penalties. If it’s only a visit, just go visit, nobody at passport control will check tax records.
If you don’t move to the US it’s important to conceal your US citizenship from banks in your home country, to avoid FATCA reporting and possible restrictions on services. With a non-US birthplace on non-US ID this will be very easy to keep secret.
You are getting a lot of terrible advice here. You don’t earn enough to owe US taxes. You don’t need a lawyer. If you plan on moving to the US then you could use the “streamlined program” to get caught up without penalties. If it’s only a visit, just go visit, nobody at passport control will check tax records.
If you don’t move to the US it’s important to conceal your citizenship from banks, to avoid FATCA reporting and possible restrictions on services. With a non-US birthplace on non-US ID this will be very easy to keep secret.
There are a lot of missing details here. You should definitely contact a tax professional and an immigration attorney. You will be questioned at the port of entry about how you acquired your citizenship and what you do for work.
I worked overseas as a U.S. citizen for a short time and was still required to file taxes. I didn’t owe anything because the limit at the time was $105K per year, and I only earned the equivalent of $20K annually.
The limit is now $130K per year. If you earn over this amount, you will owe taxes on the amount above the limit. For example, if you earn $150K, you would owe taxes on the $20K over the limit.
Get a consultation with an qualified tax professional before making any decisions.
Sometimes the IRS can’t even tell you how much taxes you owe. Half sarcasm and half serious. I can’t imagine a border agent is going to have any access to figures that are determined from paperwork that doesn’t exist. If you’re in fact an American citizen, then your tax is number is usually your social security number. You can search tax history on the IRS site via your number. If nothing exists, then they’re likely not going to think twice about it.
But like others say, consult a lawyer with this in mind.
Just because your father was a US citizen doesn’t automatically make you one. Whatever country your birth certificate has on it is *usually* your official nationality. There are exceptions for military or other specific situations listed on the state department website someone linked in the comments.
This is a topic for an accountant and CPA. You would be surprised generally how many you will find in your country that are familiar and certified.
Either way, for the longest time, the first 80k (?) made outside USA is not taxable and now I guess up to (130k?).
So you need to consult a CPA. My best guess, they will have you file tax returns for the last few years. That would actually help you as you try to move to the states. If your income per year is below those numbers, your biggest cost is the fees your accountant will charge you to file those.
Good luck.
Disclaimer: this is my best guess. If someone believesI am wrong, show me why and I will remove my answer.
You need to talk to an accountant or lawyer specializing in American taxes on foreign earned income
If you are just planning a trip, there is nothing they can do. The IRS is not going to show up at the airport and arrest you
Have you earned money in the United States?
Post this over in /r/USExpatTaxes. It comes up a lot there and people will have more detailed responses.
OP, right intentions to get advice online, but wrong sub. You need the legal advice sub. There’s nothing that can help you in THIS sub as it’s not about your personal finances but instead about if you gotta pay taxes or not. This sub is more about budgeting/investing 🙂
I wouldn’t overly worry about it. I have a close friend who was born into a very poor family and never filed his taxes growing up. He now lives overseas and for last 15 years he has never once filed them. The embassy abroad didn’t care and has renewed passport twice and when he returned last September for his father’s funeral immigration and passport control said literally nothing. Is this the best plan? Probably not, he doesn’t make enough money to owe any taxes. You’ll be fine.