To my knowledge NZ and USA are two countries that will try to tax you wherever you live until you die unless you renounce citizenship. So dealing with being dou

To my knowledge NZ and USA are two countries that will try to tax you wherever you live until you die unless you renounce citizenship. So dealing with being double taxed on income from NZ and USA was a big deal as well. So, New Zealand does not tax their citizens abroad wherever they live. They do tax their residents abroad wherever they live. New Zealand has an extremely broad definition of resident - anyone with a permanent place of abode (read: permanent home) in New Zealand regardless of how long they have been out of the country. The US and New Zealand do have a tax treaty which ought to settle any issues of double taxation. The other commonwealth countries (such as Canada) have similarly broad or vague wording in order to catch as many tax payers as possible. The US is large enough that all the weird situations which can happen, will happen and on a regular basis so the rules tend to be much more black and white.