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Another annoyance: with the latest batch of reporting regulations for accounts of US citizens, many foreign banks won't let US citizens open up investment acco

by wheels 15y ago

Another annoyance: with the latest batch of reporting regulations for accounts of US citizens, many foreign banks won't let US citizens open up investment accounts since it's not worth it to them to deal with the reporting. (Presumably they make exceptions for large accounts, but e.g. in Germany, where I live, most online brokerages don't allow such.)

philiphodgen 15y ago
This is increasingly common. You know the saying "The Internet interprets censorship as damage and routes around it"? Substitute the US tax system for internet. Our politicians and bureaucrats do not understand that it is a very big world. We risk declaring ourselves irrelevant. A large chunk of the world may simply shrug and say "meh who needs you." Exhibit A: China loosened its currency today. You KNOW they are going to pimp it as a reserve currency preferable to the USD.
- HSO 15y ago
  Isn't it funny, when the Chinese don't loosen their currency, it's called mercantilism; when they do, they "pimp [the CNY] as a reserve currency". A case of damned if they do, damned if they don't?
  - philiphodgen 15y ago
    Yeah it is a no-win. Not only for the Chinese government but for all of us--critics will be with us. The Chinese government is taking an action to create its own future. Let's see what happens. I was a boy living in Africa at the tail end of the Empire. I still remember watching the pound sterling slowly drift into irrelevance.
beedogs 15y ago
The reporting requirements are seriously going to be what gets me to renounce. The limit they set -- $10,000 -- is absurdly low, and, honestly, since all of my income and all of my savings are made and held outside of the US, I don't see how it's any of the IRS's goddamned business in the first place.
- philiphodgen 15y ago
  The $10,000 limit was introduced in the 1970s when it was a lot of money. :-)

by wheels 15y ago

philiphodgen 15y ago

This is increasingly common. You know the saying "The Internet interprets censorship as damage and routes around it"? Substitute the US tax system for internet. Our politicians and bureaucrats do not understand that it is a very big world. We risk declaring ourselves irrelevant. A large chunk of the world may simply shrug and say "meh who needs you." Exhibit A: China loosened its currency today. You KNOW they are going to pimp it as a reserve currency preferable to the USD.

HSO 15y ago
Isn't it funny, when the Chinese don't loosen their currency, it's called mercantilism; when they do, they "pimp [the CNY] as a reserve currency". A case of damned if they do, damned if they don't?
- philiphodgen 15y ago
  Yeah it is a no-win. Not only for the Chinese government but for all of us--critics will be with us. The Chinese government is taking an action to create its own future. Let's see what happens. I was a boy living in Africa at the tail end of the Empire. I still remember watching the pound sterling slowly drift into irrelevance.

beedogs 15y ago

The reporting requirements are seriously going to be what gets me to renounce. The limit they set -- $10,000 -- is absurdly low, and, honestly, since all of my income and all of my savings are made and held outside of the US, I don't see how it's any of the IRS's goddamned business in the first place.

philiphodgen 15y ago
The $10,000 limit was introduced in the 1970s when it was a lot of money. :-)