British Foreign Secretary gives up US citizenship after ‘outrageous’ tax bill

The British Foreign Secretary, Boris Johnson, has given up his US citizenship, according to a US Treasury document published on Thursday, two years after he settled an “outrageous” tax demand that he had earlier refused to pay.
A quarterly Treasury list of people who gave up US citizenship between October 1 and December 31 included the name Alexander Boris Johnson.
Johnson’s full name is Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson.
During a visit to the US in November 2014, Johnson told a US radio station that US authorities had made an “outrageous” demand for him to pay tax on the sale of his London home.
He told WAMU’s Diane Rehm Show he did not plan to pay the tax.
Johnson said: “I think it’s absolutely outrageous. Why should I [pay it]?
“I haven’t lived in the United States for, you know, well, since I was five years old.”
But in January 2015, Johnson agreed to settle the tax bill, which the Financial Times estimated at about $44,000.
The tax liability resulted from Johnson’s profit of $542,855 on the sale of his family home in London in 2009, the newspaper said.
Records for the four tax years to March 2015, published while Johnson was mayor of London, showed he earned 1.99 million pounds ($2.49 million) and was liable for tax of 916,000 pound in Britain over the four years.
He said: “No US tax liabilities arose during the period.”