Britain's Boris Johnson gives up U.S. citizenship

PanARMENIAN.Net - British Foreign Minister Boris Johnson, who was born in New York, has renounced his U.S. citizenship, according to a United States Treasury Department document released Wednesday, February 8, AFP reports.

Alexander Boris Johnson figured in the Treasury list of people who had given up their U.S. citizenship in the last quarter of 2016.

The former mayor of London has held both British and U.S. passports.

Johnson had said in 2015 he intended to give up his dual nationality for patriotic reasons.

He said his U.S. passport was "an accident of birth" and that he had to "find a way of sorting it out" with the then U.S. ambassador Matthew Barzun.

"The reason I'm thinking I probably will want to make a change is that my commitment is, and always has been, to Britain," he told the Sunday Times newspaper.

"They (the Americans) don't make it easy for you," Johnson added, hinting it could be a long and arduous process.

Britain's foreign ministry said he renounced his U.S. citizenship early in 2016, which then took some time to go through the system.

Johnson had previously settled a capital gains tax bill sent by the U.S. after he sold his house in north London, calling the demand "absolutely outrageous".

All U.S. citizens have to pay tax to Washington, even if they live outside the country.