[ebg13]

> My new job in Paris was 42,000 (euros) a year.

> You'll still have to pay Federal taxes if you're a US citizen. I was able to contact H&R block from Paris and sent them ALL my paystubs in order to prove that I had paid French taxes. It didn't matter, I still had to pay in a small some for federal taxes. You'll be double taxed US/FR.

??? The foreign earned income exclusion covers up to $104,000/year once you pass the presence test.

> - The food!

You must be a big fan of ham sandwiches. There isn't a more Parisian food than ham and butter on white bread with nothing else on it. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jambon-beurre

[weinr0ck]

I never heard of the 'presence test'. What does that entail? Also, listing a wikipedia article doesn't merit evidence to the contrary. Yes, you can go to a train station and find not-so-good food. It'd be just like going to Subway here, not-so-good. Predominately, the french care about their food much more than americans.

[ebg13]

> I never heard of the 'presence test'. What does that entail?

If you're a US citizen living and working abroad, you should read:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foreign_earned_income_exclusio...

https://www.irs.gov/individuals/international-taxpayers/fore...

And...uhh...this random blog post that I just found in a search on the subject: https://www.remotefinancialplanner.com/foreign-earned-income...

When you file your taxes as a US expat you get to choose between the foreign earned income exclusion and the foreign tax credit. Which you should choose depends on circumstances, but if you're living full time and working in France and earning less than $100k there then clearly you should just exclude your income and then pay nothing to the US.

If understanding taxes in the US is generally complicated, taxes for expats are definitely even more so. Knowing which income you can exclude is important if you plan to live abroad.

> Yes, you can go to a train station and find not-so-good food.

I lived in France for several years (mostly but not exclusively in Paris) and boy howdy is sandwich culture not reduced to anything so far as "you can go to a train station". Nearly every bakery in the country, and there's like one every few blocks in Paris right next to seventeen pharmacies and a fruit stand, has a display case of pre-made sandwiches. Ham and butter on white bread and kebab wraps are major components of the food culture. You even get jambon beurre and kebab flavored potato chips everywhere, though for the money my favorite potato chip flavor was Quick(r) cheeseburger.

Let's not even get into the ubiquity of frozen tv dinners from Picard.

Does France have restaurants? Sure. But so does literally everywhere else.

> It'd be just like going to Subway here

Paris also has a bunch of Subways and McDonalds and Burger Kings and Dominos and whatever other cheap fast food you can think of, and they're all frequently packed with people, because most of the time what people want in France, like everywhere else, is something cheap and fast (hence the sandwiches). They also have a Chipotle at La Defense if you ever get nostalgic, but at lunch time the line goes out the door.