I wonder how that works. I imagine the Python library is still raking in royalties decades later. Their hovercraf is full of eels. So does he pay less taxes to the USA if he does not live there? AFAIK income is attributed in the country it is earned, but I imagine there are layers of corporate insulation between the individual members and the assorted income. Plus… British tax rates. I don’t imagine he dropped citizenship for anything except the hassle of all the IRS red tape.
The US is one of the few countries that tax its citizens regardless of where they live.
Although I am a resident of Japan and my income is earned here, I’m required to file US taxes in addition to Japanese ones.
There is an earned income exclusion of up to $130,000 and people get credits for taxes paid to foreign governments, so if the tax rates in your host country is similar to the US, then people generally done owe US taxes.
But residents of countries with lower income tax rates can owe US taxes and I don’t know how passive income works. I don’t know if the earned income exclusion can count against royalties.
My friend in Singapore is an investor bro and has a large income from investing, so he’s is in the process of renouncing his citizenship. We haven’t talked much about it so I don’t know the details.
The principle of the law is aimed at billionaires. The idea is that somebody like Jeff Bezos could pay off some third world dictator to become a citizen of that country, along with a deal that says he owes no taxes in that country, He could then renounce his American citizenship but continue to live in the United States as he’s done all along. Just now not paying American taxes because he’s legally a foreigner.
The law aims to stop this by saying that if you renounce your American citizenship, you have to follow through by actually leaving the country.
You might be surprised. At this point they’re very much a legacy act and apparently residuals have been in steady decline. Young people do not know or quote Monty Python and slowly disappearing old people aren’t still snapping up their intellectual property at the rates they once did.
Eric Idle had a bit of a public spat a couple years back over John Cleese’s daughter Camilla who was managing their moldy old empire. He was distressed about the state of their finances and how he still had to work to “get by.” It seems to have been a bit of old-once-very-rich-guy-is-now-only-comfortably-well-off-and-resents-it. But he at least seemed to feel he is no longer near rich enough as old income streams dry up.
I think they changed the rule a few years after he renounced- but there still is a limit , it’s just not 30 days a year anymore.
The law must have been inconveniencing some billionaires.
I recall a decade or so ago going to a “Revenge on the Ex” tour by John Cleese - I gather to generate some income after a particularly expensive(?) divorce. It was basically a monologue and then having some fellow interview him on stage in a very large and very full audiorium, and I was happy to go. He was quite entertaining.
You can bring back a reasonably generous allowance of stuff duty-free but what they don’t tell you is that there is not a heck of a lot of stuff that is worth bringing back. In Quebec, the sales taxes are 5% for federal goods and services tax (GST) plus almost 10% for provincial Quebec Sales Tax (QST). Long ago there was a scheme that gave American tourists a rebate on the GST for goods they took back to the U.S., but that ended years ago. Anything that is widely available on both sides of the border is likely to be cheaper on the U.S. side, after taxes are included. Things that might still make sense to bring back are souvenirs, unique handmade goods, and certain brands of Canadian-made alcohol and snacks that are not widely distributed on the U.S. side of the border. Maybe also books, especially those that are hard to find in the US (e.g., French language books or Canadian history books), since they are taxed at only at the 5% GST but are exempt from the QST.
Furthermore, all food, including snacks, must be declared at the border. Canned and jarred and most other commercially packaged foods are usually simple enough, but bringing in fresh or frozen vegetables and fruits, live plants, raw meat, poultry, and eggs, though not absolutely prohibited, may be more trouble than they’re worth. Here’s a breakdown of rules about importing food into the US: https://www.aphis.usda.gov/traveling-with-ag-products/traveling-united-states-canada-land-borders
I have always enjoyed the time I’ve spent in Canada and I don’t even mind (or not very much) the higher taxes I have to pay while I’m there. Their country, their rules, and I still love it. But don’t be like some people I know who go there expecting to get a lot of bargains to bring back home. You’ll only be disappointed.
That reminds me: I have a bunch of Calvin & Hobbes books translated into French from various trips to Montreal years ago. It’s fun to see how the jokes are translated.
For whatever reason, the OP said he wanted to do some shopping. Maybe he wants to buy maple-leaf kitsch for Christmas presents 
I can think of a lot of stuff i might want to bring back (mostly souvenir or art) and it’s a reasonable question to ask.
What a coincidence. The main thing I do when I go to Montreal is visit used book stores.