&gt; I already pay income tax in the UK, so paying it twice sounds absolutely ridiculous.<p>You aren&#x27;t paying twice. That&#x27;s the point. Assume the US has a 30% tax rate in your bracket. Poland has a 35% rate for that same bracket. Then as an American expat, you would pay 35% in taxes. If Poland had a 25% rate, you&#x27;d pay 30% (25 + 5) in taxes. You aren&#x27;t paying 65% of your income in taxes. You aren&#x27;t paying twice.<p>&gt; On the most basic level - Poland has absolutely no &quot;right&quot; to any of that money.<p>Then Poland has the right to say you are no longer a Polish citizen that can take advantage of Polish embassies or move back to Poland at any time as a full citizen.<p>It seems perfectly sensible to me.