[mrmekon]

I guess it depends on your definition of "ordinary people", but if you're going abroad for long-term work in any "middle class" industry, you're eventually going to have extremely complicated taxes.

Retirement savings, stock options, real estate, and any sort of investment account makes your U.S. tax return go from "a 1040" to a towering mountain of special forms. A lot of them also lose you the right to e-file, for some reason. And many aren't supported by tax software, or are handled incorrectly.

A lot of "foreign" banks – i.e. your _local_ banks – won't even talk to you. They tell you to make your investments in the U.S. instead, so you get to pay international wire transfer fees and foreign currency exchange fees on every investment. And if you want to move it back, you get to pay them again.

You won't necessarily owe any tax in the U.S., but you sure pay for it in either filing time (10s to 100s of hours) or expat tax accountant fees.

[cr1895]

> They tell you to make your investments in the U.S.

And, extra maddeningly, a number of American institutions won't even talk to you, either.

Try calling up Vanguard or Charles Schwab if you're just a normal person who lives abroad and see how quickly they'll tell you "sorry! we don't want your business"

Even if you still have a permanent US address (i.e., not just some post box).

[CamTin]

WBK (https://www.bzwbk.pl/) seemed more than willing to open me a bank account quite recently. There were a few more forms due to my being a US citizen, but it seemed like actually fewer than my wife (a Polish citizen with a US Green Card) needed to do the same thing. Maybe things are stricter in the West than in Poland?

[cr1895]

It depends on the bank. Essentially it boils down to whether the "foreign" bank is willing to go through the compliance and data-sharing that is impressed upon them by working with Americans. Some do, many understandably can't be bothered.

[CamTin]

Right, so why all the fuss over whether some of them don't bother? How many banks do you need? As long as there's one that will take your business, why should you care that the one down the block won't? I guess it could be an issue if you're in a rural area with limited banking competition? Even then, most banking is done online now and a couple of trips a year to the "big city" to get some business taken care of (see the consulate, visit a specialist doctor, sign for a loan, whatever) is just part of life if you're in a smaller town, no matter where in the world that is.

[cr1895]

"All of the fuss" is not so much that the choices of banking available to an American abroad are reduced (though they are, and not necessarily due to the laws and regulations of the host country; and of course it depends how difficult it is based on the country) but that FINCEN/FBAR compliance which is in principle aimed at those evading taxes actually results in real pain for typical Americans who are living and working abroad, who only want to do right tax-wise.