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by yehi 3420 days ago
Every country is different. You will have to specify what country you are a citizen to, and where you plan on going.

I know that being an American citizen can make it very difficult to live abroad. I am an accidental American and I have to report all of my money that I earn and keep abroad. That means if I have a job and earn a salary, keep a pension fund, have investments, work as a contractor for 1 job and have my spouse's bank account under both our names, I have to report all of that. Seeing as no free software offers a way to do all that I have to pay a yearly I-am-an-American "tax" to an accountant to make sure that everything is filed properly. If any mistake is made I could be fined up to half of the money that I own (not the money that I have in America, but all of the money that I own). If I want to open a bank account, I better hope that my bank in my country decides to bother with all of the liability involved with having an American customer. If not, they can (and some have) simply close my account and tell me to withdraw everything. If I want to start investing through a company such as Schwab, I must declare exactly how I earned all of the money, be limited in the funds that I can buy, and receive less perks.

If anyone else is an American living abroad or who wants to live abroad, feel free to contact me. On the bright side, we still are allowed to vote. That means that I periodically call my representative and let them know that I don't care whether they are Democrat / Republican, Pro-Life / Pro-Choice, like Trump / hate Trump, if they want to repeal these laws preventing Americans living abroad from living a normal life, I will vote for them.

If you are and American who is interested in leaving America or if you already have, feel free to read more here: https://aaro.org/position-papers-2015/taxation-and-financial...

2 comments

American Citizens Abroad (https://www.americansabroad.org/) is another non-profit organization working on behalf of US persons abroad. They are doing some great (but probably ultimately quixotic) lobbying work in favor of changing to Residence Based Taxation, and they have also spearheaded a way to have a US bank account even when you aren't able to be physically present.

Their newsletters also have general good advice etc. and are generally a great resource.

You get $100k a year tax free, or a credit for any foreign paid taxes if you are living abroad. Yes it is not the normal tax situation as 99% of other people but most people living abroad are not paying any additional taxes to the US.