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>>Sure saves the poor kids the nightmare of not being able to open a bank account abroad, as a US citizen. You save them nothing, soon or later Uncle Sam will

>>Sure saves the poor kids the nightmare of not being able to open a bank account abroad, as a US citizen. You save them nothing, soon or later Uncle Sam will crunch numbers and discover that the German version of John Doe is an American, as far as IRS is concerned. USA can solve the problems for 99.99% of expats and accidental Americans by making laws for those with $million+ salaries /assets. They gain nothing by making every poor guy spend thousands a year to tell IRS that they owe nothing. FYI: People from a lot of countries are paying and will pay tens of thousands to bring their kids to USA...illegally. So US citizenship is still valuable. Very valuable.

spacedcowboy 6y ago
I used to own a company in the UK, which was bought by Apple and part of the purchase agreement was that I and the other company partner[] move to Cupertino. Owning a company meant actually submitting forms to the Inland Revenue (the UK equivalent of the IRS) every year, and it was sufficiently a hassle that we paid an accountant to do it. Fast forward to a few years after the move to the US, and the IR are still sending me forms every year to fill out about my income in the UK. Eventually I tire of this yearly ritual, so I just drew a diagonal line over every single page of the return, put a big fat '0' in the last entry, and in the comments at the end I wrote "I live in the US. I have lived in the US for the past 5 years. I do not have any immediate plans to return to the UK, so this is a waste of your time and mine. Please. Stop." I wasn't actually expecting it to stop... But a month or few later I got a letter from them saying that they took note of my comments, would stop sending me yearly forms, warning me that if I returned to live in the UK, they would expect me to notify them "perhaps more politely". At which point I sort of felt guilty letting the frustration spill out onto the form... [] Before we were bought, we travelled yearly to the US (in part to see Apple). Most times, in the Bay Area, we stayed in Sausalito just over the bay from San Francisco, and caught a ferry to SF in the morning. String in the sunlight on a ferry with a Danish pastry is an excellent way to commute, and we typically stayed in 'Hotel Sausalito' (interesting fact: a converted brothel). Early on in this series of yearly events we arrive (for Java-one this time), and John (not his real name) walks into the reception and proclaims "I am John <name> and this is my partner <my name>". They booked us into a single room with a queen bed. Both being owners we generally shared a room on these trips (small company finances can be brutal), but never actually a bed. The hotel didn't have any two-bed rooms left, and there'd been a mix-up with the booking, but eventually they gave us another room for 1/2 the price, which was an acceptable compromise :)

spacedcowboy 6y ago

I used to own a company in the UK, which was bought by Apple and part of the purchase agreement was that I and the other company partner[] move to Cupertino. Owning a company meant actually submitting forms to the Inland Revenue (the UK equivalent of the IRS) every year, and it was sufficiently a hassle that we paid an accountant to do it. Fast forward to a few years after the move to the US, and the IR are still sending me forms every year to fill out about my income in the UK. Eventually I tire of this yearly ritual, so I just drew a diagonal line over every single page of the return, put a big fat '0' in the last entry, and in the comments at the end I wrote "I live in the US. I have lived in the US for the past 5 years. I do not have any immediate plans to return to the UK, so this is a waste of your time and mine. Please. Stop." I wasn't actually expecting it to stop... But a month or few later I got a letter from them saying that they took note of my comments, would stop sending me yearly forms, warning me that if I returned to live in the UK, they would expect me to notify them "perhaps more politely". At which point I sort of felt guilty letting the frustration spill out onto the form... [] Before we were bought, we travelled yearly to the US (in part to see Apple). Most times, in the Bay Area, we stayed in Sausalito just over the bay from San Francisco, and caught a ferry to SF in the morning. String in the sunlight on a ferry with a Danish pastry is an excellent way to commute, and we typically stayed in 'Hotel Sausalito' (interesting fact: a converted brothel). Early on in this series of yearly events we arrive (for Java-one this time), and John (not his real name) walks into the reception and proclaims "I am John <name> and this is my partner <my name>". They booked us into a single room with a queen bed. Both being owners we generally shared a room on these trips (small company finances can be brutal), but never actually a bed. The hotel didn't have any two-bed rooms left, and there'd been a mix-up with the booking, but eventually they gave us another room for 1/2 the price, which was an acceptable compromise :)