381–390 of 411 posts
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So you took advantage of a system paid for by others and then decided you wouldn't contribute back. That's fine, but also pretty much the definition of greedy/selfish. Regardless what your "hardship" story maybe, it would have been harder if everyone acted the way you do now.
That crosses into personal attack, which is not allowed on HN.
The use of the term "expat" rather than "immigrant" is interesting. I read a piece in the guardian the other day which framed that distinction in terms of white vs non-white ( http://www.theguardian.com/global-development-professionals-... ), but it's obviously a bit more complicated than that. I don't think the two terms are synonyms, but they are very close, and once you try to pick apart the differences, I think t…
Migrant: someone not from here, living not where they were born.
I think you're over thinking it. To Somalians they're just somali expats.
I don't understand, isn't it easier to get around this by keeping your foreign bank account balance low (less than 10k) and transferring money on a regular basis to your US bank accounts to make sure it stays under 10k?
If you live overseas then you probably want to do thing like save up for retirement, or a house. While you can have a US bank account, it means taking a loss to change the money first to then from dollars. You also have to be very careful with your direct deposit. If it goes into your local account (because it's expensive and more complicated to wire the money to a US account) and make $5K/month then you have to be a…
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It can be a huge hassle for normal US citizens living outside the US. Most banks won't deal with them because of the risks involved. As a US citizen abroad, just getting a regular bank account can be next to impossible. I live in Singapore and when I was signing up for a stock trading account I asked what would have happened if I had to answer yes in the box that asked if I was liable to pay income tax in the US. The…
I lived in Singapore for 3 years and managed without a stock trading account. It's one of the easiest places to open a bank account, actually.
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You mean the 2013 budget sequestration never happened? Tell that to the departments that are getting $1.1T less over an 8 year period. Between the sequestration and the lack of budget increases, the US has been going through a period of federal austerity.
Maybe it's just me, but when I think "austerity" I don't think such small-single digit percentages. If our government is that sensitive to such small piddling decreases in income, then the problem lies in the government anyhow, not the income decrease... on the timespan of your life, there will be years where the income will have to go down. Be it major famine, major natural disaster, or the need to fight an actual w…
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I'm not a tax expert but don't think the scenario you describe is correct. In most countries when you inherit it's the estate that is taxed and generally the estate is taxed in country of domicile of the estate rather than citizenship of the recipient. In your scenario the estate would would be taxed by the country of domicile, and then the remaining money transferred to you. If you were a US person then you would be…
To be clear, the money is not intended to transfer into a US bank account. So for all intents and purposes, it has remained outside the US and will continue to do so. The point being that the US has no business trying to tax income generated from funds that has never entered the country. Residence based taxation (like the rest of the world) would address this immediately.
(The non-domiciled rule in the UK being one notable exception)
I just noticed that this year if you open a bank account in most EU places they all ask you if you are a US citizen or have a green-card for the US to tick a box on the account opening forms. I'd really hate it if my own country would force all the banks in the world to report back to the "mothership" and hence track my every move around the world for what? The IRS? Sure there are also other implications such as tota…
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If you have a Euro passport, you might as well torch your American one. There is no benefit to being identified as an American overseas when you have a European passport. In fact I would argue it is more dangerous. My family that were stuck in Kurdistan were able to avoid violence against Americans because they had Swedish passports. That little blue book is a death sentence in some places where something else wouldn…
"If you have a Euro passport, you might as well torch your American one." Even if that were true, what proportion of US citizens living outside the US (the class to which my comment and the immediate parent referred) have a 'Euro passport'?
I am British, and am married to an american. My wife moved to the UK and has never worked since. I had no idea about her obligation to file anything. She's been here for over a decade. Like a lot of people we use a joint bank account. My salary, and anything else goes in there. A couple of years ago I sold my flat in central London, and had 400K (600K USD) in there at various points. I have no idea how to bring my wi…
If you are both concerned, she can file back FBARs with a letter of explanation as to why she hadn't filed them (I had to do the exact same thing). I wasn't fined, and I was scared as hell. Yes, this is one person's story. Personally, if you can, I'd get in touch with a tax solicitor and get a real professional opinion on your options, including how to insulate your assets in the case of any idiocy by the US. One thi…
I'm pretty sure child pornography laws weren't meant for teenagers sending nude snaps to each other, either.