A Proposed Pillar 3 For International Tax Reform: Individuals Should Be Tax Residents Of Only One Country At A Time

Tax Sovereignty: All countries (including the US) has the right to create its own domestic tax policy. The question is how to solve the problem of US citizenship-based taxation from an international perspective.

The problem: US citizenship-based taxation means that US citizens are tax residents of the United States even when they are tax residents of other countries. Interestingly US tax treaties contain a provision called the “saving clause” which denies US citizens the benefits of a tax treaties. See for example Article XXIX of the Canada US Tax Treaty. Tax treaties generally include a residence tie breaker (usually Article IV) which allocates the tax residency of dual tax residents to one country or another. See for example Article IV of the Canada/US Tax Treaty. The “saving clause” denies residency tie break provisions to US citizens.

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