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Living in Foreign Country, Dual Citizen self-employed, married to non-citizen

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needtaxadvice

Junior Member
Hello.

I come from the UK. I moved to the US for about 7 years with my parents , and became a citizen so that if i needed to go to the US to visit my parents i would be able to.

I then moved to SE Asia and got married (to a non-US citizen) acouple of months after becoming a citizen. I work freelance on the web from this SE Asian country. According to what I've read and when completing my tax return i'm supposed to be mailing the US 15.3% of my income for self-employment tax?

This works out to be about half of the money i've put away for the year.
My spouse thinks i'm having a laugh when i say that i'm supposed to be mailing half our savings to the US.

Do i have any options to get out of this? I do not plan on collecting any money from the US (ever), is there any way to opt-out of Social Security tax and Medicare that seem to make up this 15.3%

Looking at the return it is possible to Contract my non-citizen spouse to do all my work for me?

Should i renounce my US citizenship, or are there other options?
 


LdiJ

Senior Member
Hello.

I come from the UK. I moved to the US for about 7 years with my parents , and became a citizen so that if i needed to go to the US to visit my parents i would be able to.

I then moved to SE Asia and got married (to a non-US citizen) acouple of months after becoming a citizen. I work freelance on the web from this SE Asian country. According to what I've read and when completing my tax return i'm supposed to be mailing the US 15.3% of my income for self-employment tax?

This works out to be about half of the money i've put away for the year.
My spouse thinks i'm having a laugh when i say that i'm supposed to be mailing half our savings to the US.

Do i have any options to get out of this? I do not plan on collecting any money from the US (ever), is there any way to opt-out of Social Security tax and Medicare that seem to make up this 15.3%

Looking at the return it is possible to Contract my non-citizen spouse to do all my work for me?

Should i renounce my US citizenship, or are there other options?
Publication 54 states very clearly that you are subject to self employment tax even if you are living abroad and even if that income is excluded as foreign earned income.
 

needtaxadvice

Junior Member
Publication 54 states very clearly that you are subject to self employment tax even if you are living abroad and even if that income is excluded as foreign earned income.
So to avoid paying this tax would you say my only choice is to renounce my US citizenship?
Or are there any other legitimate options?
 

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