Political Theory

Re: Being taxed by USG, while living overseas (WTF)

filc — Sat, 02 Apr 2011 20:31:47 GMT

Basically you are the property of the state. Anything you produce the US gov gets first dibs on as their own.

Re: Being taxed by USG, while living overseas (WTF)

Libertyandlife — Sat, 02 Apr 2011 20:25:17 GMT

This is why I hate when the nannystaters compare the state to parents. Your parents don't come after you and ~~ask~~ take a cut when you leave their household.

Re: Being taxed by USG, while living overseas (WTF)

TANSTAAFL — Sat, 02 Apr 2011 20:04:33 GMT

It is not too difficult to understand this when you start with the premise that the government owns you.

Re: Being taxed by USG, while living overseas (WTF)

Marko — Fri, 01 Apr 2011 16:35:15 GMT

There was a new law passed several years ago that requires you to pay taxes for 10 years after you renounce US citizenship.

Wow!

The DDR had the wall, but at least once you were over it you were home free.

Re: Being taxed by USG, while living overseas (WTF)

Libertyandlife — Fri, 01 Apr 2011 16:00:41 GMT

Are there any countries that have not agreed to these laws (I'm assuming the only way for the U.S to tax you is for the country you live in has to agree with it)?

Re: Being taxed by USG, while living overseas (WTF)

WisR — Fri, 01 Apr 2011 14:22:04 GMT

How could you avoid the tax? Get rid of citizenship or something?

There was a new law passed several years ago that requires you to pay taxes for 10 years after you renounce US citizenship.

Re: Being taxed by USG, while living overseas (WTF)

Paul — Fri, 01 Apr 2011 10:57:26 GMT

How could you avoid the tax? Get rid of citizenship or something?

You can't even do that if the State Dept think you're doing it for tax-avoidance reasons :|

Re: Being taxed by USG, while living overseas (WTF)

Libertyandlife — Fri, 01 Apr 2011 07:10:40 GMT

How could you avoid the tax? Get rid of citizenship or something?

Re: Being taxed by USG, while living overseas (WTF)

Alternatives Considered — Fri, 01 Apr 2011 07:06:25 GMT

Sorry, I wasn't very clear. There's both the issue of income that you earn oversees that we have been talking about, but additionally, there is the issue that if you are a US citizen and you want to move oversees and take your assets with you (think: you are retiring and want to move somewhere warm and cheap), I have heard (which means: I have not really researched it) that you can't just take your money with you, that the US government will tax you again just for taking it out of the country. I'm not talking about income; I'm talking about existing, owned assets.

I've actually contemplated pulling up stakes and moving to somewhere like Costa Rica, not that I'm rich, but at this point I've saved up enough that I could probably live on it in Costa Rica... *if* I could take it all with me (and if I could still draw my social security checks once I'm old enough). I suspect however that things are not set up to allow that.

Does anyone know?

Re: Being taxed by USG, while living overseas (WTF)

WisR — Fri, 01 Apr 2011 06:48:57 GMT

Alternatives Considered:

In a theory sense, it's pretty ridiculous. In practice, at least when I did it, it wasn't very bad. This was back in the mid 90s, Ilived and worked in Australia. In USD, I made less than 74K, which meant I didn't actually owe any taxes in the US. I simply filed a tax return, said I made n dollars, and deducted n dollars for a taxable income of 0. No tax obligation, etc.

15 years later, I make a lot more money than I did then, and I worry a lot about the rules in which the US taxes you on your assets that you try to take with you overseas, even though all of that money is already "after tax" money! *That* is just pure fucking robbery: "we don't want you to leave because we don't want you taking your money with you, so if you do leave, we're taking a bunch of that money."

By law if you work for yourself or for a company that is 10% or more US owned, you must pay all of your social security / medicaid taxes (unless you are also paying them in the country you are working in, then you can exclude that amount). The foreign earned income deduction, or whatever its proper name, only applies to income tax.

If you work for a foreign owned employer then you can get away with not paying this.

That's like 17% of whatever you make up to the first hundred thousand, quite a lot, really.

Re: Being taxed by USG, while living overseas (WTF)

Libertyandlife — Fri, 01 Apr 2011 06:34:57 GMT

So much for territorial monopoly. You can leave the land, and stop using the service, but still pay taxes? How can people say it's voluntary?

Disregard that, MURIKA IS DA WORLD.

Re: Being taxed by USG, while living overseas (WTF)

Alternatives Considered — Fri, 01 Apr 2011 06:26:12 GMT

In a theory sense, it's pretty ridiculous. In practice, at least when I did it, it wasn't very bad. This was back in the mid 90s, Ilived and worked in Australia. In USD, I made less than 74K, which meant I didn't actually owe any taxes in the US. I simply filed a tax return, said I made n dollars, and deducted n dollars for a taxable income of 0. No tax obligation, etc.

15 years later, I make a lot more money than I did then, and I worry a lot about the rules in which the US taxes you on your assets that you try to take with you overseas, even though all of that money is already "after tax" money! *That* is just pure fucking robbery: "we don't want you to leave because we don't want you taking your money with you, so if you do leave, we're taking a bunch of that money."

Re: Being taxed by USG, while living overseas (WTF)

DD5 — Fri, 01 Apr 2011 06:24:36 GMT

Yes, and it's why the "Love it, or leave it" argument is fallacious even on the terms of the person arguing it.

Being taxed by USG, while living overseas (WTF)

Libertyandlife — Fri, 01 Apr 2011 06:04:30 GMT

I was being told by a friend who's son is currently living in the U.K for the last year that he's not only paying taxes to the U.K government, but still for the U.S government. This is absolutetly insane, you can't see this as anything but theft:

http://www.escapeartist.com/efam5/expat_tax_2.html

Anyone else hear about this ?