Boris Johnson, the United Kingdom's foreign secretary, gave up his U.S. citizenship in 2016, and likely is getting rid of a sizable tax bill to the American government.
Johnson, the former mayor of London, was born in New York when his parents worked in the United States, but has not lived there since he was 5 years old, according to The Guardian. Johnson was among 5,411 people who renounced their American citizenship in 2016, the newspaper reported.
In 2014, Johnson complained while promoting his biography on Winston Churchill that he was being pressed to pay a capital gains tax in the United States. The Guardian reported that Johnson might have owed more than $50,000 in taxes in the United States for the sale of his home.
"The United States comes after me, would you believe it ... for capital gains tax on the sale of your first residence which is not taxable in Britain, but they're trying to hit me with some bill, can you believe it?" Johnson said, according to The Guardian. "Why should I? I haven't lived in the United States for, you know, well, since I was five years old."
Johnson said it was "hard" to give up his dual citizenship, according to The Sun. In 2015, Johnson described his dual nationality as "an accident of birth" that he planned to change, but complained that the process was "a laborious business," The Sun reported.
The U.S. taxes citizens on all income, regardless of where it is earned or where they lived, which is unusual for most countries, CNN reported. The rules have sometimes led to surprise tax bills for those with dual citizenships living away from the country, like Johnson.
Johnson was appointed Britain's foreign secretary after the country voted to leave the European Union, CNN noted. The conservative campaigned for the departure after wrestling with his fears that it could cause an economic shock and break up the United Kingdom, according to CNN.
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