Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Why Americans Are Going Abroad

medium.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

41–50 of 67 posts

Re: Why Americans Are Going Abroad

#41

Post by jkot »

bruceb wrote: post #15

Immigration is complex but what I hate is the BS and half lies that are told like this author does. "We debate immigration and border controls for Mexico ad nauseum, yet, on the whole, the typical immigrant isn’t Mexican." Like many newspapers the author is trying to blur the line between legal and illegal immigrant. The reason we are talking about border controls is because yes most come from Mexico. The typical per…

I understand that major problem with taxes is how complicated it is. Accountancy fee could be thousands dolars even if yoy pay zero taxs.. Some foreign banks even refuse to open bank accounts to US citizens, because of complications.

Re: Why Americans Are Going Abroad

#42

Post by bruceb »

venomsnake wrote: post #30
Tharkun wrote: post #19

Bloody immigrants. Go back to your own country. Oh wait, sorry, Americans aren't immigrans, they're expats. My bad. Double standards on immigration are pretty shitty.

Actually no. I want to live at least for a short time in US, so I will either try to get some of the visas or start a company there, or hope to win the green card lottery or any other legal venue. I would never under any circumstances cross a border illegal or without respecting the country borders and laws. Crossing a border/ living somewhere without legal permit is direct attack against the sovereignty of a country…

And this is the other extreme. Shooting person crossing the border is of course insane.

Re: Why Americans Are Going Abroad

#43

Post by venomsnake »

bruceb wrote: post #42
venomsnake wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Actually no. I want to live at least for a short time in US, so I will either try to get some of the visas or start a company there, or hope to win the green card lottery or any other legal venue. I would never under any circumstances cross a border illegal or without respecting the country borders and laws. Crossing a border/ living somewhere without legal permit is direct attack against the sovereignty of a country…

And this is the other extreme. Shooting person crossing the border is of course insane.

No it is not. National borders are sacred.

Re: Why Americans Are Going Abroad

#44

Post by kjjw »

bruceb wrote: post #15

Immigration is complex but what I hate is the BS and half lies that are told like this author does. "We debate immigration and border controls for Mexico ad nauseum, yet, on the whole, the typical immigrant isn’t Mexican." Like many newspapers the author is trying to blur the line between legal and illegal immigrant. The reason we are talking about border controls is because yes most come from Mexico. The typical per…

What exactly is US 'number 1' in? Income inequality? Incarceration rate? Yes, I suppose those things do need a lot of money to fund.

US passport a great passport? I don't think so. Is it a schengen passport? No. Does it allow easy movement to commonwealth countries? No (it isn't a UK passport.)

Re: Why Americans Are Going Abroad

#46

Post by happyraul »

reuven wrote: post #4
davidw wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Except that you have to pay taxes in that foreign country. Many of them have higher taxes than the US, and in any case, having to file taxes twice is not fun.

Many countries (including Israel, where I live) have tax treaties with the US. You still need to file US taxes every year, but any money you pay toward your country of residence counts toward your American taxes, up to a certain ceiling. The fact that US income tax is lower than those in most other countries means that such people will almost never paying any actual tax -- and, believe it or not, are even entitled to…

> believe it or not, are even entitled to a tax refund from the US government.

From the IRS website:

> Your foreign tax credit cannot be more than your total U.S. tax liability multiplied by a fraction. The numerator of the fraction is your taxable income from sources outside the United States. The denominator is your total taxable income from U.S. and foreign sources.

So no, one is not entitled to a tax refund, because the credit cannot be more than the total U.S. tax liability.

Re: Why Americans Are Going Abroad

#47

Post by atmosx »

dataker wrote: post #14

> Italy makes it remarkably easy for descendants of Italian emigrants to claim citizenship, for example Hm... No. It took me 4 years to obtain my Italian citizenship(from my mother). We almost had a court battle for them to accept a missing letter(literally).

Weird, where you from? I got both (Greek and Italian) citizenships the moment I was born (my mother is from Sicily) and I was born (and currently live) in Greece.

Re: Why Americans Are Going Abroad

#48

Post by davidw »

IkmoIkmo wrote: post #37
dataker wrote: post #14

> Italy makes it remarkably easy for descendants of Italian emigrants to claim citizenship, for example Hm... No. It took me 4 years to obtain my Italian citizenship(from my mother). We almost had a court battle for them to accept a missing letter(literally).

Friend of my dad's moved to Italy, learned to speak the language fluently and spent every day of his 20 years or so there working hard and being an upstanding citizen. He started a family there, but because he missed some paperwork early on, his kids never became Italians and neither did he or his wife. So yeah his kids were born in Italy, all grew up in Italy, speak Italian fluently (natively), went to school there…

> kafkaesque messed up bureaucracy

This kind of describes immigration bureaucracy anywhere and everywhere.

Here's Linus Torvalds on some of the hassles he had: http://www.linuxjournal.com/article/3655 (search for green card). That's the kind of person you should be laying out the red carpet for.

Re: Why Americans Are Going Abroad

#49

Post by atmosx »

jamessantiago wrote: post #2

I wonder how increases in remote work acceptance will affect emigration. If you allow remote work from anywhere it would seem like moving to another country on some sort of visa would be an instant pay increase using the foreign earned income tax break.

Nah, of course not. It's not even practical... The amount of jobs that could be done remotely (e.g. programming, design, etc.) are just a tiny fraction.

Re: Why Americans Are Going Abroad

#50

Post by atmosx »

venomsnake wrote: post #43
bruceb wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And this is the other extreme. Shooting person crossing the border is of course insane.

No it is not. National borders are sacred.

You were not born in the Gaza strip, Syria, Turkey's east border, Mexico, South Korea or Cuba... So why give a shit, right?

That's a mature way to think and act. So much for 4000+ years of human evolution.

Post reply on HN