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It likely won't work. As soon as he gets US citizenship, exit tax will be placed on him and now if he wants to quit US citizenship he pays a big exit tax and U

It likely won't work. As soon as he gets US citizenship, exit tax will be placed on him and now if he wants to quit US citizenship he pays a big exit tax and US citizens are taxed on their global income, so whenever he works next, he also pays taxes to the US.

deanmoriarty 7y ago
Curious to hear more details on this, but this is my current understanding: First, exit tax is not just contingent on citizenship, but also on long term permanent residency, so I am effectively already under that rule, citizenship or not. Also, while the exit tax is for sure draconian, it doesn't mean you'll have to necessarily pay a huge amount, it merely depends on the unrealized gains you have in your assets. In my case that's relatively small since I'm not a homeowner and I've been paying capital gain taxes all along. Second, most countries in the world (including the one where I have EU citizenship) have tax treaties with the US so that individuals who pay income or other taxes in a foreign country where they are resident for fiscal purposes will effectively obtain a foreign tax credit against the US taxes, avoiding double taxation. Since taxes in EU are higher than US, one wouldn't have to pay anything at all to the US. I've been dabbling with the US foreign tax for years myself due to some passive income generated in my home country, and I've always been able to claim full credit for it when filing my US taxes. Third, my plan would not be to "work next" somewhere in EU. When/if I decide to leave (which may be never), with 7 figures in assets I should be able to live a modest lifestyle out of passive income in my original EU country (very cheap cost of living), so taxes would be minimal, if any at all.
xyzzyz 7y ago
The exit tax is not some wealth/estate tax that will make a huge dent in your assets, it's simply making capital gains tax due on the date of leaving US, not on the date of the sale of capital asset. It's extremely easy to pay zero exit tax when you leave US: just liquidate all your positions, so that you only own cash. This way, you'll just pay capital gains tax instead of exit tax. Of course, there's no reason to do that, because both are equal.

deanmoriarty 7y ago

Curious to hear more details on this, but this is my current understanding: First, exit tax is not just contingent on citizenship, but also on long term permanent residency, so I am effectively already under that rule, citizenship or not. Also, while the exit tax is for sure draconian, it doesn't mean you'll have to necessarily pay a huge amount, it merely depends on the unrealized gains you have in your assets. In my case that's relatively small since I'm not a homeowner and I've been paying capital gain taxes all along. Second, most countries in the world (including the one where I have EU citizenship) have tax treaties with the US so that individuals who pay income or other taxes in a foreign country where they are resident for fiscal purposes will effectively obtain a foreign tax credit against the US taxes, avoiding double taxation. Since taxes in EU are higher than US, one wouldn't have to pay anything at all to the US. I've been dabbling with the US foreign tax for years myself due to some passive income generated in my home country, and I've always been able to claim full credit for it when filing my US taxes. Third, my plan would not be to "work next" somewhere in EU. When/if I decide to leave (which may be never), with 7 figures in assets I should be able to live a modest lifestyle out of passive income in my original EU country (very cheap cost of living), so taxes would be minimal, if any at all.

xyzzyz 7y ago

The exit tax is not some wealth/estate tax that will make a huge dent in your assets, it's simply making capital gains tax due on the date of leaving US, not on the date of the sale of capital asset. It's extremely easy to pay zero exit tax when you leave US: just liquidate all your positions, so that you only own cash. This way, you'll just pay capital gains tax instead of exit tax. Of course, there's no reason to do that, because both are equal.