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The threshold is > ~100k living abroad to pay taxes. Almost nobody pays this. Moreover, it's not ridiculous that if you're a tycoon traveling the world and you

The threshold is > ~100k living abroad to pay taxes. Almost nobody pays this. Moreover, it's not ridiculous that if you're a tycoon traveling the world and you're implicitly using US citizenship as your escape card, you should pay taxes. Anyone who has lived abroad knows most countries don't want to jail/detain other country nationals.

toastal 5y ago
That's if you take the expatriot exemption. Doing so has many implications including not being able to legally contribute to an IRA or SEP account. Even with the exemption, you still owe taxes on Social Security and Medicare. Social Security checks ship abroad, but the Medicare is not redeemable nor are there any exemptions for it. There's been years of editorials of regular Joe retirees not realizing this til late that they paid Medicare their whole lives to get in a big medical bind in another country.
jwr 5y ago
> Almost nobody pays this. Do you have statistics to back this bold claim? There is an additional problem in the form of FBAR/FATCA requirements, which impose a huge burden on taxpayers abroad. Ever tried to report the exact max amounts and interest in all of your accounts? It's not fun, it takes a lot of time and effort, and it costs money.
- toastal 5y ago
  The FBAR issue means you have to report if at any time you had more than $10k, a number that hasn't changed since the 80s I think, as if you are a criminal for keeping a reasonable amount of money in savings for a place you reside. I know Democrats Abroad has been trying to push to remove the FBAR requirement at least to some extent for banks in the same country you filed your taxes from in. It's not a tax haven if you spend all of your time living there. Not only this but it's difficult to open accounts abroad as an American because foreign banks really don't want to deal with filing all of this paperwork for the IRS.
viraptor 5y ago
> if you're a tycoon traveling the world You've got a biased view here. This is not a tycoon level of earnings. That's a standard citizen who moved abroad and works as a (senior) software engineer.

toastal 5y ago

That's if you take the expatriot exemption. Doing so has many implications including not being able to legally contribute to an IRA or SEP account. Even with the exemption, you still owe taxes on Social Security and Medicare. Social Security checks ship abroad, but the Medicare is not redeemable nor are there any exemptions for it. There's been years of editorials of regular Joe retirees not realizing this til late that they paid Medicare their whole lives to get in a big medical bind in another country.

jwr 5y ago

> Almost nobody pays this. Do you have statistics to back this bold claim? There is an additional problem in the form of FBAR/FATCA requirements, which impose a huge burden on taxpayers abroad. Ever tried to report the exact max amounts and interest in all of your accounts? It's not fun, it takes a lot of time and effort, and it costs money.

toastal 5y ago
The FBAR issue means you have to report if at any time you had more than $10k, a number that hasn't changed since the 80s I think, as if you are a criminal for keeping a reasonable amount of money in savings for a place you reside. I know Democrats Abroad has been trying to push to remove the FBAR requirement at least to some extent for banks in the same country you filed your taxes from in. It's not a tax haven if you spend all of your time living there. Not only this but it's difficult to open accounts abroad as an American because foreign banks really don't want to deal with filing all of this paperwork for the IRS.

viraptor 5y ago

> if you're a tycoon traveling the world You've got a biased view here. This is not a tycoon level of earnings. That's a standard citizen who moved abroad and works as a (senior) software engineer.