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Wealthy people are renouncing American citizenship

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Re: Wealthy people are renouncing American citizenship

#681

Post by kingosticks »

1024core wrote: post #434
ricksunny wrote: post #383

Earlier quoted context omitted.

American expat here - agreed with the other expats - it’s the filing that really, really sucks. Like really. Breaking the difficulty down in terms of priority. 1 - just trying to work through what all might possibly be owed and not owed to US as well as the country(ies) one operates in. 2 - Identifying through which paperwork to declare it, while also ensuring income / business reporting is copacetic with the tax reg…

Why doesn't the US reduce it to a flat tax? Say, $1000/year to send you your election ballot, and evacuate you in case something goes horribly wrong.

And how about they make this service opt-in. I was born in the US but I have had nothing to do with the place for 95% of my life and I don't want their help. Why must I fill out their paperwork every year or pay them money to opt-out (which I can't even do anymore because of the current backlog).

Re: Wealthy people are renouncing American citizenship

#682

Post by mistrial9 »

Muromec wrote: post #647
skeeter2020 wrote: post #550

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Doesn't the Netherlands do this as well? As a Canadian I think not allowing dual citizenship might solve a lot of issues with both the very rich and the very poor.

Unless you marry a citizen or get citizenship by option , you have to surrender previous one.

unless you have special wealth status?

Re: Wealthy people are renouncing American citizenship

#683

Post by emodendroket »

mixmastamyk wrote: post #671
jrochkind1 wrote: post #511

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, wehther it's alright or not, whether it is accurately characterized as 'getting screwed' or not, at least it's only the ones who can most afford it.

No, this hits the upper to middle professional class the hardest. One percenters are handled by a staff with white gloves as always.

Strange that we're all commenting on an article concerning specifically the ultra wealthy renouncing citizenship to reduce tax liability then

Re: Wealthy people are renouncing American citizenship

#684

Post by disabled »

shry4ns wrote: post #522
texasbigdata wrote: post #210

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your representation is a bit exaggerated. The law simplistically simplifies to: if your income is above $X, then if your foreign tax payment $Y is less than the theoretical amount of tax you would have paid doing the same work under American Tax laws $Z, then please remit the difference ($Z-$Y) to the American government. I've personally filled out the forms several times, for multiple periods (full and partial). How…

Noob question -- what do you mean by harmonization trends in the EU? I couldn't quite understand from a google search or maybe even what exactly to search for.

This is a good read: https://www.hklaw.com/en/insights/publications/2021/07/agree...

For example

Control/Command + F = "Ireland"

Re: Wealthy people are renouncing American citizenship

#685

Post by markdown »

bakuninsbart wrote: post #672
anticristi wrote: post #632

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I heard rumours that this law is basically to put a thorn in the eye of Turkish immigrants minus what the EU does not allow. Is there any truth in this?

It got really awkward when the large minority of turkish Germans living in Germany with turkish citizenry overwhelmingly voted for Erdogan in the last elections. I'd really wish Germany was able to adopt an immigrant culture similar to the US, but the current situation is a semi-failure, but neither side of the political spectrum seems to be able to implement good policies to solve the issues.

> the current situation is a semi-failure

WOuld you care to expand on that? I'm curious what in particular about the US immigrant culture you would like to see adopted, and what about the current German system prevents that culture from developing.

Re: Wealthy people are renouncing American citizenship

#686

Post by kingosticks »

emodendroket wrote: post #565
bmn__ wrote: post #552

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Faulty assumption; Americans who live abroad do not benefit from the US system: social security/disability/retirement, health programs, military, public infrastructure etc. pp. is provided by the country where they live.

Does the country where they live run the embassy too and I just never knew about it?

What's the embassy doing for me as an American citizen living abroad who uses none of their services (except passport renewal but that's only because of the other ridiculous rule that US citizens must travel there on a US passport). Why am I paying for it?

Re: Wealthy people are renouncing American citizenship

#687

Post by leppr »

jleyank wrote: post #636
leppr wrote: post #606

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> If you're also a US citizen, please vote to get this fixed. Where/how can US citizens vote to modify the social security system?

I thought US expats could vote where they last lived in the US in Federal elections... President, Senate and House.

Is there a way to, even approximately, target the "social security system" issue with your vote? Or do you have to chose between 2 or 3 bundles of pre-chosen policies, the composition of which you had no say in?

Re: Wealthy people are renouncing American citizenship

#688

Post by [deleted] »

beezle wrote: post #602
bnralt wrote: post #411

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Many Americans seem to believe that, but it doesn't actually seem to be the case. For instance, when Yemen was falling apart, countries like China, India, Pakistan, Russia, and Indonesia all worked hard to evacuate their citizens, many using their military to do so[1]. The U.S. response was to tell American citizens they were on their own[2]. The U.S. embassy even recommended that Americans seek assistance from India…

The US is also very good at issuing travel warnings that are very explicit about the risks [1] I am not aware of the DoS ever going from 'its all ok' to 'see ya, y'all on your own now!' Anyone that was in Yemen prior to 2/15 had (or should have) a very good idea of where things were going. [1] https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/traveladvisories/...

[deleted]

Re: Wealthy people are renouncing American citizenship

#689

Post by MandieD »

jleyank wrote: post #636
leppr wrote: post #606

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> If you're also a US citizen, please vote to get this fixed. Where/how can US citizens vote to modify the social security system?

I thought US expats could vote where they last lived in the US in Federal elections... President, Senate and House.

Legally: yes, federal law says that you have to be allowed to vote for the federal offices from wherever you last lived in the US (or your American parent, if you were born abroad but never lived in the US)

Reality: some states make it easy and will even let you vote in state and local elections, others make it inconvenient if you’re not with the military (have to request ballots every year, have to diligently watch for registration purges), and some make it practically impossible for non-military.

If you’re an American abroad having trouble registering and/or getting your ballots, your local Democrats Abroad chapter has someone who will help you out. Even if you’re a Republican ;)

I want as many US citizens abroad as possible to vote on a regular basis, even if they’re voting differently from me: our representatives will pay more attention to us if they see that we vote in larger numbers.

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