Record Numbers of Americans Want to Leave the U.S

The issue is not that I trust the government, it's that I trust companies less. Governments have done a lot of bad things, and have done a lot of deception, but ultimately I trust their model of accountability more than I do companies. I'm not against being persuaded...but I don't see a lot of (any?) real world examples of this free-market utopia you describe, nor signs that it would come about. Instead, whenever govt reduces regulation too far, companies form monopolies, perform deceptive trade practices, and break the fundamental concepts of capitalism. That govt can over-regulate does not mean that (1) it must, nor (2) that it is.

All of which is irrelevant (again) to this article, which is stating that people are unhappy with the results. They aren't demanding tax cuts, they want the results. The primary obstacle to results in recent decades has not been the govt being bad at it's job, but people demanding the govt stop doing these things and cutting their funding to do so, then complaining about the govt's inability to fix things. These are the same people demanding bigger military funding and focus on oil, so the govt seems to be doing a decent job of doing what it's asked...it's just not what I and many others are asking for.

1) So that we can have consistent, reliable, and widely-available services. 2) So the financial cost of society is spread fairly across everyone.

These are not guarantees the free market provides, because the market doesn't care about outcomes. Giving people tax breaks and hoping they donate it to homeless shelters will probably not help all the homeless people in the country. Switching the FDA to an opt-in subscription service will not prevent unsafe drugs from reaching consumers.

Sure I'd prefer government to run be as efficient as possible, but the goal isn't efficiency, it's better outcomes.

So you're working for a US tech company that issued you RSUs and options in the US market, and you also bought an apartment in your foreign country of residence, and you also happened to buy some ETFs once on the London Stock Exchange. Good luck with filing without an accountant or being audited :)

Also, have fun ever selling foreign property. Being subject to expatriated taxes means you are automatically ineligible for real estate capital gains exemption. Decide to move to a better apartment and sell your old one in a foreign country? Welp, now you owe capital gains on the sale with no exemptions allowed, even though the transaction had nothing to do with the US in any way. [2]

In addition, if you earned over the FEIE limitation, you'd be fully taxed in that bracket by the US AND by your resident country. Some EU member nations have special taxation rules especially for US expats (Germany for instance) thanks to a cozy relationship and a huge number of US foreign nationals living there (civilian employees of the US military, for instance). In general though, you'd be strictly double-taxed on income. You also get no credit against paying VAT, which is a significant tax in the EU.

Trust me, I am speaking from experience here, there is nothing at all simple about paying US taxes while living abroad or even filing an accurate return. You're also at higher audit risk. You basically /have/ to hire an expensive accountant (or be lucky enough that the US government supplies/augments one if you're a government employee).

Also if you own real property in the United States, you are automatically excluded from being eligible for FEIE. I owned my home in the US while I was abroad, which meant I was never entitled to FEIE unless I transferred the property into ownership of a trust (like a REIT) or sold it. If I moved it into a trust, I'd have to pay taxes off any gains made and those would not be excluded and do not have to be fully realized to be taxable in some scenarios.

Taxes are really really really complicated in general, and US taxes are bonkers stupid complicated. And then there's FATCA, so good luck even trying to get away not filing a return or dealing with this situation [1].

Basically, the short answer is if you are a US citizen and you move abroad, be ready to get shafted hard by the IRS and also pay extensively for the privilege of telling them how hard to shaft you.

[1]: https://www.usexpattaxhelp.com/us-american-expats-what-%20is... [2]: https://www.nerdwallet.com/blog/taxes/selling-home-capital-g...

P.S.: Sorry about all the edits in a short amount of time. I kept finding more things I thought needed to be said. I'll leave this response alone now.