Hacker Newsnew | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submitlogin

> If you pay taxes abroad the US will still haunt you to show that you paid - and if it's lower than you would have paid back home claim the difference.

That's only if you're lucky, and move to a country with a no-double-taxation treaty. There's only a few of them. No tax treaty, you pay the full amount due to both governments (after excluding your US foreign earned income allowance ~$90K).

Worse, if you live in a foreign country and start a business you now own what the US considers a "foreign controlled corporation" and your new nightmare begins. Not to mention many banks won't do business with you abroad because of FATCA and you have to report your balances annually to FinCEN or risk forfeiture of 50% of the balance in the account. And you can't open a brokerage account in a foreign country because you can't have an account not overseen by the SEC.

Then if your child is born abroad with no other connection to America they'll suffer the same fate for the rest of their lives unless they renounce, which itself comes with substantial costs.

I think the number of renunciations is fairly low because most dont make >90K in foreign countries, and FATCA is new-ish.



Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: