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On Receiving my Certificate of Loss of Nationality

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Re: On Receiving my Certificate of Loss of Nationality

#61

Post by voisin »

michaelhoffman wrote: post #21
thatfrenchguy wrote: post #4

> FATCA forces me to hand over my private financial information, as well as my non-American husband’s, to an extent that homeland Americans don’t have to unless they’re suspected of a crime. Come on, it's your bank account numbers, that's only because the US government already knows what your account numbers are. > I pay almost $1000 per year to an accountant to fill out the forms—more and lengthier than they’d be if…

The Foreign Earned Income Exclusion is USD 107,600. If you make less than that, then the forms (Form 2555) are pretty easy. If you make more, Form 1116 can be a pain to get right but if you have an accountant do it once you can figure out how to modify the form for subsequent years.

As the name implies, that only applies to Earned Income. Not investment or business income not taken as salary or any other form of income.

Re: On Receiving my Certificate of Loss of Nationality

#62

Post by eterevsky »

hbrav wrote: post #33

I have a question about this, that I've never been able to find a good answer to: what happens if you unilaterally renounce US citizenship? Consider the situation: you're a dual US / Dutch citizen. You want to avoid paying US income tax (or just to avoid filling in a form each year that results in the IRS telling you that your tax bill is $0 because the Netherlands' tax rate is higher). But the State Department's ren…

I don't think citizenship in general can be unilaterally renounced, in the same way as you usually can't unilaterally divorce somebody. Citizenship includes obligations both from the state towards an individual and vice versa. In my understanding (IANAL) the easiest way to unilaterally renounce a citizenship is to seek political asylum.

Re: On Receiving my Certificate of Loss of Nationality

#63

Post by throw63738 »

Rapzid wrote: post #55
voisin wrote: post #16

The conversation here at this moment seems to be focused solely on whether or not it is complicated or costly to keep filing US taxes. This misses the point in that the US is the _only_ developed country to impose worldwide taxation on its citizens regardless of where they live. The only other country to do so is Eritrea and the US has routinely criticized them for doing so. Moreover, it makes expats ineligible for c…

In practice the 2021 108k per person foreign earned income exclusion is reasonably large and uncomplicated to claim. After that the list of countries we have tax treaties with is pretty large: https://taxsummaries.pwc.com/united-states/individual/foreig...

In practice US citizens have it difficult to even open simple bank account. Most foreign companies prefer not to deal with US gov.

Re: On Receiving my Certificate of Loss of Nationality

#64

Post by monocasa »

jaywalk wrote: post #56
jeffrallen wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You should try living as an expat before assuming her experiences are exaggerated. She is telling it like it is.

Where was it assumed her experiences were exaggerated? The point is that her experiences are the result of her own choices, not anything that was "done to" her.

The term "melodrama" implies exaggeration.

Re: On Receiving my Certificate of Loss of Nationality

#66

Post by Hamuko »

jaywalk wrote: post #58
Hamuko wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Like the fact that your home country keeps an eye on your and your non-American family members' financial information on a level that is usually reserved for criminals?

Well, this blogger wasn't paying her taxes, so...

Because she didn't owe any. And yet, she had to pay thousands out of pocket to prove it to the US government that she didn't owe any taxes and they still basically monitor her like a tax dodger (because obviously all Americans abroad are dodging taxes, right?).

Re: On Receiving my Certificate of Loss of Nationality

#67

Post by voisin »

Rapzid wrote: post #55
voisin wrote: post #16

The conversation here at this moment seems to be focused solely on whether or not it is complicated or costly to keep filing US taxes. This misses the point in that the US is the _only_ developed country to impose worldwide taxation on its citizens regardless of where they live. The only other country to do so is Eritrea and the US has routinely criticized them for doing so. Moreover, it makes expats ineligible for c…

In practice the 2021 108k per person foreign earned income exclusion is reasonably large and uncomplicated to claim. After that the list of countries we have tax treaties with is pretty large: https://taxsummaries.pwc.com/united-states/individual/foreig...

As the name implies, that only applies to Earned Income. Not investment or business income not taken as salary or any other form of income.

Re: On Receiving my Certificate of Loss of Nationality

#68

Post by welder »

As a US citizen, being taxed while living abroad can dangerously trigger double taxation. Imagine being taxed 70% of your income... scary! I've been researching ways to live abroad without being double-taxed, and here's some resources I've found:

* https://www.greenbacktaxservices.com - give them your foreign tax return and they file your US return

* https://wandererswealth.com - international tax consultant

* https://nomadcapitalist.com/book - modern flag theory, talks about moving your life and business overseas to control your tax rate

For bank accounts, I had trouble opening them in Germany (US citizens are to foreign banks like GDPR is to US companies) except for Number26 however that's an online-only account:

* https://n26.com/

Edit: Why am I getting downvoted for sharing useful resources? I'm not affiliated with these links in any way.

Re: On Receiving my Certificate of Loss of Nationality

#69

Post by Rapzid »

jacquesm wrote: post #44
hbrav wrote: post #33

I have a question about this, that I've never been able to find a good answer to: what happens if you unilaterally renounce US citizenship? Consider the situation: you're a dual US / Dutch citizen. You want to avoid paying US income tax (or just to avoid filling in a form each year that results in the IRS telling you that your tax bill is $0 because the Netherlands' tax rate is higher). But the State Department's ren…

It will make you in violation of the law, and that could come back to haunt you in the future, for instance when and if you want to go and visit your family back in the USA. I would strongly recommend against going that route. Besides that, you still have to get your 'new' country to give you citizenship as well, which will go a lot smoother if the new citizenship is paired with renouncing the USA one, you really don…

Or you get married abroad and want to sponsor your spouse's VISA; they want to see your tax returns.

Re: On Receiving my Certificate of Loss of Nationality

#70

Post by jaywalk »

sanedigital wrote: post #42
nickthemagicman wrote: post #13

Her essentially 3 reasons for renouncing essentially and my responses: >I could vote in the US, but no one represents the needs of US citizens abroad because our votes are dispersed over all 50 states. * there's hundreds of millions of people and only two parties in the U.S. no one represents anybodies needs well >I pay almost $1000 per year to an accountant to fill out the forms—more and lengthier than they’d be if…

It’s clear from your response that you’re not at all familiar with the issues here. I’m a bit confused as to why you’d feel the need to share your opinion on a topic where you’re very clearly not well informed. As an American expat for five years, I can assure you her complaints are accurate. 1. Not remotely the same. As a resident of a particular state, your senators and congresspeople are certainly looking out for…

>As a resident of a particular state, your senators and congresspeople are certainly looking out for your state’s interests.

You've apparently forgotten a whole lot in your five years as an expat.

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