People are people.
It also has an impact on estate planning. Citizenship is an honor bestowed under the U.S. Constitution upon those who are born in the United States or who are granted citizenship through a naturalization process. Because these benefits extend to citizens irrespective of where they may be physically from time to time, so too does the privilege of paying U.S. taxes. That is, a U.S. citizen is obliged to report worldwide income to the IRS each year and, at the time of a citizen s death, his or her estate assets must be reported for U.S. estate tax purposes irrespective of where those assets are. He or she must file IRS form 1040 like the rest of us, and must report income received in the United States as well as income received elsewhere.