[iamjdg]

I’ve been a US expat in Canada for 21 years, and I can say the time and stress of US citizen based tax law is extreme. But every year I do it, send tons of info to the IRS, because I knew the laws, but I would love this burden being removed. I am not super wealthy, my net worth is ~$3 million which is from decades of a high savings/investment rate into primary retirement accounts and equity in my principal residence.

On a side note, another draconian US expat tax law, the US will tax US citizens on capital gains over the US limit on the sale of your foreign principal residence. Crazy right. Don’t live the US, maybe never have, but if you have US citizenship, accidentally or not, or a green card, they can tax you on the sale of a principle residence located outside US jurisdiction.

The US/Canada tax treaty is good in the sense I rarely pay double tax, except for some special circumstances (stock options), but it is a ton of paperwork, information, and stress that I didn’t mess something up. I worked in Germany for a couple of years, and when I wasn’t a Canadian tax resident (I am also a Canadian citizen) the Canadian Revenue Agency didn’t care about my German income and I didn’t have to file any information for it. It was bliss. But of course the US IRS cared. This tax filing years were nightmares.

[dionidium]

> I am not super wealthy, my net worth is ~$3 million

It's worth noting that this is the 96th percentile for net worth in the United States. Maybe by "super wealthy" we only mean the 97th, 98th, and 99th percentiles?

Source: https://dqydj.com/average-median-top-net-worth-percentiles/

[ncmncm]

Wondering if renouncing US citizenship relieves this particular indignity. Retroactively, one might hope...

[jonp888]

The traditional solution of the US government to prevent this was to make you pay thousands of dollars to do it. So much that Germany, which normally doesn't allow dual citizenship, would make an exception on the basis that it was financially impossible for low earners.

They've now come up with an even better solution, which is to force you to go to an in person appointment, but also to ban you from doing so due to covid. Problem solved!

[iamjdg]

Yeah this is an option. There is a fee and and exit tax audit. But I travel to the US frequently for visiting family and business and I worry renouncing would lead to border crossing troubles. Im not living outside the US because Im anti US. It’s just where my career took me and then I met my spouse, bought a house, had kids, etc. I don’t want to give up the citizenship of my birth country. So I will complain about the draconian US tax laws but I will probably just endure them for the rest of my life.

[anaisbetts]

Google "US Exit Tax" if you want to find out just how much the US hates people who expatriate.