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On Receiving my Certificate of Loss of Nationality

rachelsruminations.com

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Re: On Receiving my Certificate of Loss of Nationality

#21

> 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.

Re: On Receiving my Certificate of Loss of Nationality

#24
post #14

It's not like a divorce, because there is no way to become a US citizen again after you've renounced your citizenship. e: I was wrong; see below.

Can you share a source for that? I know at least 1 person first hand who has renounced and then later on in their life regained citizenship. It's possible the rules around this have changed however.

Yes, I think the rules might have changed. Apparently nowadays you can regain it "under very limited circumstances": https://www.usa.gov/renounce-lose-citizenship

Re: On Receiving my Certificate of Loss of Nationality

#25

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…

If you have access to your spouse's account you may need to enter that into the FBAR form https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bank_Secrecy_Act#FBAR

Regarding the difficulty of investing/borrowing outside the US: Non-US banks are required to report stuff to the US if they have US customers. So they might not want US customers because it's a hassle for them.

Re: On Receiving my Certificate of Loss of Nationality

#26

ELI5 why she renounced her citizenship? Not getting it from that post, a 3 minute wander on her site and the FATCA Wikipedia page.

Americans living in other countries don't want to pay taxes anymore. Apparently the only option is to stop being an American, which she has decided to do.

Re: On Receiving my Certificate of Loss of Nationality

#27
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…

>some negative impact on US competitiveness

Negative impact on US citizen's competitiveness, which means they're less likely to get jobs outside of the US. Which means more looking for jobs domestically, leading to lower cost of labour for corporations inside the US.

Re: On Receiving my Certificate of Loss of Nationality

#28

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…

You mentioned it. FATCA is not targeting US citizens abroad, it's targeting financial organisations who have US citizens as clients. So, many banks around the world will have "Are you a US citizen" as one of the first questions to open an account, and if the answer is yes, they will politely decline any further requests.

Re: On Receiving my Certificate of Loss of Nationality

#29

ELI5 why she renounced her citizenship? Not getting it from that post, a 3 minute wander on her site and the FATCA Wikipedia page.

If you’re a US citizen living in another country you’ll find many banks and financial institutions decline to have you as a client because dealing with FATCA makes it far more trouble than it’s worth. No other developed country makes similar demands.

Re: On Receiving my Certificate of Loss of Nationality

#30

ELI5 why she renounced her citizenship? Not getting it from that post, a 3 minute wander on her site and the FATCA Wikipedia page.

Americans living in other countries don't want to pay taxes anymore. Apparently the only option is to stop being an American, which she has decided to do.

>I pay almost $1000 per year to an accountant to fill out the forms—more and lengthier than they’d be if I lived in the US—only to prove I owe nothing, since I pay taxes here in the Netherlands.

Apparently she wasn't paying taxes (to the US) anyways.

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