The point I mean with the kid working at Starbucks is that most wage earners will have a very simple tax requirements. In many countries they won't even need to

The point I mean with the kid working at Starbucks is that most wage earners will have a very simple tax requirements. In many countries they won't even need to send in a tax return since it'll be done automatically. If they are a US citizen on the other hand they will now need to employee a specialist tax accoutant to handle tax requirements from the US and put in their paperwork. All to determine they owe the US nothing. Ted Cruz was born in Canada. HE was a US citizen at the moment of his birth without having set foot in the US. If his family hadn't moved back to the US then he could have grown up in Canada as a US citizen and he would have had to file US taxes once he started making money. All without ever having set foot in the US.