<prompt> Human: Hey rpersonalfinance, I would really appreciate if you could help me out on this one: I was born outside of the US and spent most of my life including my childhood living in Germany, where I still live today. I am in my mid-twenties now. During the last 5-6 years, I wasnt making huge amounts of money; about 10-20k a year working part time to support my studies. I finished uni and started a full-time job in 2016, which is now earning me about 52k a year. Until recently, I was unaware of my US-citizenship. My father is a US citizen and got me a US passport shortly after I was born. Never talked to me about it, though...As far as I know, the United States are the only country to impose federal taxes on non-residents. Is this always true? I have never lived or worked in the US. I went there once or twice as a tourist, thats it.Do I need to file for US federal income tax? If so, where do I start? What should I expect, both in terms of bureaucracy and in terms of the total amount of outstanding tax payments e.g. are we talking hundreds or more like thousands of dollars? Could I face charges for not filingpaying all this time? Could I give up my US-citizenship to avoid these taxes in the future? Im just a German dude living in Germany, happily paying German taxes. Why should I be paying US federal income taxes anyway?  <response>: The US taxes foreign income earned by citizens, but also gives a tax credit in the amount of foreign taxes paid. Most European nations have higher tax rates than the states, so most US citizens working in Europe end up not owing any US tax. There is no penalty for not filing if no tax is owed.If you ever plan on workingliving in the US, its probably good to get into the habit of reporting your income and German tax paid, mostly to prevent any possible tax-related questions in the future. If you plan on living in Europe and only visiting the US as a tourist youre probably safe ignoring the whole matter. Giving up US citizenship is possible, but not advisable because that could lead to problems entering the US in the future, not to mention that getting the citizenship back could be difficult. 