abbey621:


You are right, I just looked it up, the law was modified some years ago and U.S citizens need not maintain residency in the U.S....very good info thanks!

The caveat with that is, as a US citizen and even Green Card holder, living and working outside the US, you are required by the US law to file and pay taxes each year. These taxes might be minimal, but they will treat you as a US tax payer, then you are allow to include lots of deductions eg tax already paid to your host country, you may even qualify for foreign earned income exclusion depending on agreements between the US and your host country.

However, certain incomes (e.g. investment, lottery winnings, etc) that might not be taxable (or given tax grace period) in your host country or where the tax rates are different (lower) compare to the US', might be subject to taxes (or additional tax) when you file your US tax returns as a foreign resident.

This double taxation, is one of the major reason many US citizens residing abroad are renouncing their US citizenship.

This presents an interest problem for many Nigeria politicians that are US citizens e.g. the INEC chairman and others that are US Green Card holders. It will be interesting to know how much they filed with the US IRS as their worldwide income versus what they filed in Nigeria. Since most will want to be more transparent when filing US taxes than with Nigeria. Any Opposition Research team worth their billing in Nigeria can dig these things up and use them against current and future politicians.....And if it comes up that, they do not file US taxes, that is a huge problem...

linearity:


The caveat with that is, as a US citizen and even Green Card holder, living and working outside the US, you are required by the US law to file and pay taxes each year. These taxes might be minimal, but they will treat you as a US tax payer, then you are allow to include lots of deductions eg tax already paid to your host country, you may even qualify for foreign earned income exclusion depending on agreements between the US and your host country.

However, certain incomes (e.g. investment, lottery winnings, etc) that might not be taxable (or given tax grace period) in your host country or where the tax rates are different (lower) compare to the US', might be subject to taxes (or additional tax) when you file your US tax returns as a foreign resident.

This double taxation, is one of the major reason many US citizens residing abroad are renouncing their US citizenship.

This presents an interest problem for many Nigeria politicians that are US citizens e.g. the INEC chairman and others that are US Green Card holders. It will be interesting to know how much they filed with the US IRS as their worldwide income versus what they filed in Nigeria. Since most will want to be more transparent when filing US taxes than with Nigeria. Any Opposition Research team worth their billing in Nigeria can dig these things up and use them against current and future politicians.....And if it comes up that, they do not file US taxes, that is a huge problem...

You are right again, although most politicians and business owners have legal representations when it comes to taxes, most of them end up paying little to no taxes because there are major loopholes within the U.S tax system when it comes to deductible expenses and son on: e.g. rental property, loss of business equipment, disaster relief and so on. In the real sense of things, I wonder why any right thinking politician from Nigeria would want to maintain U.S residency or citizenship, it seems pointless to me!

nduchucks:


Great info.

You stated: "By our constitution, a citizenship by birth can never be taken away by any act of our constitution regardless of the situation. " I'd appreciate if you could provide the constitutional provision which states that a renounciation of the said citizenship by a person, having duly sworn to renounce the same, cannot or will not be honoured by Nigeria. As far as I can tell, the supreme court is yet to weigh in on this issue.

The mistake you are making is that, constitution don't take away the right it does not give you. Being a Nigeria citizen is a natural right. No Constitution we take that away from you. You can renounce your citizenship by naturalization or registration but not by birth. Even if you write to court to do that they just keep it for record purpose.
What Constitution can do to make their citizen more responsible is to put series of conditions that can prevent people outside from holding elective position if they have stayed outside beyond a number of years. But as at today, having a dual citizenship does not prevent you from contesting or holding political appointment.

CFCfan:

Yes. As long as you're a Nigerian citizen by birth.

shey some Igbo guys won house of reps in lag and in some northern states there are Yoruba councillors and so on. Let the constitution be amended Sha! It will be better then.

Raheem2386:
shey some Igbo guys won house of reps in lag and in some northern states there are Yoruba councillors and so on. Let the constitution be amended Sha! It will be better then.

Which area are you seeking amendments to?

CFCfan:

Which area are you seeking amendments to?

seeking amendments in the Area of claiming the state you were born and to contest for an electoral office there and not necessarily where one's father comes from. Someone mentioned earlier in d thread that once the amendments to the current constitution are ratified one can do so(if I understood correctly of course).

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Note to self:

-Under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, the name continental shelf was given a legal definition as the stretch of the seabed adjacent to the shores of a particular country to which it belongs.

-Territorial waters, or a territorial sea, as defined by the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, is a belt of coastal waters extending at most 12 nautical miles (22.2 km; 13.8 mi) from the baseline (usually the mean low-water mark) of a coastal state. The territorial sea is regarded as the sovereign territory of the state, although foreign ships (both military and civilian) are allowed innocent passage through it; this sovereignty also extends to the airspace over and seabed below.

-An exclusive economic zone (EEZ) is a sea zone prescribed by the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea over which a state has special rights regarding the exploration and use of marine resources, including energy production from water and wind. extends from the outer limit of the territorial sea to a maximum of 200 nautical miles (370.4 km; 230.2 mi) from the territorial sea baseline, thus it includes the contiguous zone. A coastal nation has control of all economic resources within its exclusive economic zone, including fishing, mining, oil exploration, and any pollution of those resources

CFCfan:
It's a bit long. Please bear with me

no its not! back in p.h. a lawyer did an extensive review and you are in order. great write up!