This question was presented in May 2020 on Quora with some interesting comments from Americans Abroad. This post is about the question “Does the United States provide Americans Abroad any benefits? This post presents the questions, answers and my answer to the question. If you are an American Abroad reading this post your comments and experiences are most appreciated.

As a defender of American “freedom”, how do you justify the fact that US citizens have to pay taxes to the US even if they live and work abroad (even if they have never been to the US but got their citizenship through their parents)?

I along with others attempted to answer the question. What follows is the readers question and my answer.

Some of the most interesting analysis comes from the comments to the answers. See the following answer and comment. I have turned David Johnstone’s comment into a post.

One of the answers to the question included the suggestion that:

If someone lives and works abroad as an American citizen, he or she must be enjoying SOME benefits or they would logically renounce their US citizenship instead of paying US taxes. That would be a good solution for anyone facing this question. Just go!
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