Chile Forum

I found this NYT article about Expats interesting, so I thought I would share it...

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/26/us/26expat.html

Cheers!
John

I saw the crawl on FOX this morning. Not exactly East Germany or Haiti but definitely worth discussion.
The USA is the only nation that taxes you based on who you are and where you work. It's not a secret and should not be a shock to anyone working outside the USA.
You also need to disclose certain financial transactions, regardless of tax implications. Tax free interest earned from municipal bonds, for example does not cause the outcry reporting foreign bank accounts or movement of large amounts of cash.
It's all in the code in the same sized print.
Forewarned is forearmed.

Yea, think I posted a link to that before somewhere around here. Not sure where.

Think we will see an increasing trend of this as baby boomers move off-shore to retire. U.S. citizenship use to convey a lot of privileges over other passports in the World. Those are getting trimmed more and more with each budget cycle.

They are basically giving you a choice....stay out and renounce your citizenship, or stay in the States, sit your ass down, keep your piehole closed, and enjoy the ride!

Yeah Charles, I remember reading that post in the past a couple months ago. I'm not surprised this is happening. In addition to my Nephrologist friend who's leaving his profession, I have a dentist friend who is considering moving to Central America. More US citizens are beginning to look outside the US for greener pastures...some for the adventure, others the economy, others because of healthcare reform, and more still because they're fed up with the govt period. My fear is that other countries will begin seeing US citizens as metastatic tumors trying to invade and change things in their country.

I know this has happened in the States where New Yorker's leave for the south and Californians leave for other states in the west. People from those other states have become frustrated and fed up with the New Yorkers and Californians. Why? The people from CA and NY leave because of the high taxes, govt. intervention, high cost of living, etc., but continue to vote and make choices in the new state that creates the same problems all over again. Ah, the definition of insanity at work where you keep doing what you're doin' expecting different results the next time syndrome.

It seems likely that it will become more and more difficult for US expats to plant themselves in other countries...another reason for those who are seriously considering leaving the country to do it now vs. waiting 5 more years...But one has to understand what they are getting themselves into as they could be leaving the frying pot and jumping into the fire. Patience is a virtue, but make haste as much as is possible.

This doesn't surprise me either. I've never really seriously entertained the idea of renouncing citizenship but the more I can see where it's something I'll probably have to do someday to avoid being drowned in taxes after I move away from the US.

The only thing I've always wondered, is just what is lost other than the right to vote (which I don't do anyway)? Is it still possible to return to the US to live and work?

DanaNutter wrote:Is it still possible to return to the US to live and work?

Probably not as I'm sure one will be on some kind of do not issue visa list. If not on a list, you will have to apply for a visa like everyone else and it's a good bet the renounce thing will not be looked on positively during your interview. Anyone that does this should ideally be under the thresholds of the "for tax reasons" determination by the USG and the "exit tax"; remove all assets from the US beforehand; and tie up all personal and family matters as you won't be coming back to see them on their home territory.

If you do renounce, make sure you first have a passport from another country. There are stories of individuals with no official citizenship in any country who fall into a bureaucratic limbo. Some literally live at airport terminals, destitute, homeless and waiting for their visa or immigration hearing.

From what I understand, the US consular official will not accept your renouncement unless you show you have alternative citizenship.

I met a lady in Central America that had renounced her U.S. citizenship and had a U.N. passport (she was making a political statement that she was a "world citizen"). Of course, she was basically stuck in the country she was in because of it.

Another story on the same topic with an emphasis on the USA vs UK/Europe tax implications. Apparently, the appointment backlog for renunciation of US citizenship is becoming quite large. It seems the key to avoiding the exit tax from the US is to have less than $2M in current or yet unrealized gains (assets) upon exiting the US.

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/0ae8415c-9e5e ... ab49a.html

Become a Canadian, you can travel to the US visa free and the Government really doesn’t care about what you are doing overseas, it was less than 10 years ago the Tax form even had a question about overseas holdings, it is a yes/no tick box they also don’t have the resources or will to chase you down should you have something elsewhere, plus people don’t go to jail for tax evasion here.