Exclusive - US tax officials consider adding citizenship question to tax forms

[Old Crank]

10. A couple of points about taxation

The US and Germany have a tax treaty. I assume they have treaties with other countries also.
Since I live in Germany, Germany gets first bite of the apple. I get taxed on income at German rates. Then I file US forms and get taxed on income that the Germans didn't tax on and or any amount that the US would tax more than Germany on.

An example.
A couple of years ago we sold our US house. We got dinged for Capital gains from the US because there are no capital gains on houses if you have help them for 5 -10 years.

We paid very little US tax until my wife retired. Now our German tax advisor has managed to reduce our tax burden here but... we now pay more to the US.

If you live in Switzerland it is even messier because income taxes are by canton....