Two of my sons and my son-in-law are in the military...the German military. All three of my kids, two sons and a daughter, have American/German dual citizenships. None of them have ever lived in America, but along with their German passports they all have American passports and social security cards/numbers. My oldest son, who is in the German Air Force, is deployed through NATO to the United States (six year tour). After getting settled in with his wife and kids, he contacted a local accountant to find out if he had to pay any American taxes while working for NATO as a foreign citizen.
Over a number of weeks he contacted several accountants and strangely enough, not one of them had any idea what he was supposed to do. Apparently they had never encountered a situation where an American with dual citizenship was serving in a foreign military and didn't know what to tell him. My son went to a German military accountant, who is deployed at the same base as he is, and he didn't know what to tell him either. So he contacted the IRS, and they couldn't help him. The catch is, because he gets his pay checks from the German military, he is paying taxes back to the German government. His deployment orders originated in the German military, but were taken over by NATO as soon as he deployed to the United States. NATO is subsidizing his German military check with an additional salary because he is deployed to America. Somehow that throws a wrench into any advice accountants, including the IRS, can give him. He didn't want to get into any trouble, but he also didn't want to pay taxes twice...so better to be informed than to have the IRS knocking on his door later.
He also had problems getting a NATO military ID at the American military base where he is deployed. The lady issuing the IDs didn't know what to do. They decided that it wasn't legal in the U.S. to issue an American citizen a foreign service ID without stating on the ID that he was also an American, so they had to create a new, unique ID just for him.
It's kind of weird and unexpected that no one has encountered this situation before. All the agencies that my son contacted were baffled.
Over a number of weeks he contacted several accountants and strangely enough, not one of them had any idea what he was supposed to do. Apparently they had never encountered a situation where an American with dual citizenship was serving in a foreign military and didn't know what to tell him. My son went to a German military accountant, who is deployed at the same base as he is, and he didn't know what to tell him either. So he contacted the IRS, and they couldn't help him. The catch is, because he gets his pay checks from the German military, he is paying taxes back to the German government. His deployment orders originated in the German military, but were taken over by NATO as soon as he deployed to the United States. NATO is subsidizing his German military check with an additional salary because he is deployed to America. Somehow that throws a wrench into any advice accountants, including the IRS, can give him. He didn't want to get into any trouble, but he also didn't want to pay taxes twice...so better to be informed than to have the IRS knocking on his door later.
He also had problems getting a NATO military ID at the American military base where he is deployed. The lady issuing the IDs didn't know what to do. They decided that it wasn't legal in the U.S. to issue an American citizen a foreign service ID without stating on the ID that he was also an American, so they had to create a new, unique ID just for him.
It's kind of weird and unexpected that no one has encountered this situation before. All the agencies that my son contacted were baffled.
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