It's obviously a burden on the not-so-wealthy to be a US citizen living overseas. There's the annual requirement to file a tax return (most countries don't do this) but also the implications for opening accounts thanks to FATCA. The IRS requirement in particular needs to be addressed.
Fun fact: the US is becoming a haven for tax avoidance and privacy simply because they're forcing all this disclosure information on other countries and are completely unwilling to reciprocate.
A lot of people concentrate on the super-wealthy renouncing US citizenship. I mean that's going to happen. For people who don't know you get taxed on your holdings at current market rates when you do this. Obviously people still do this because they realize it's going to be cheaper in the long run. I don't really care about that.
What I do care about is removing the political influence of former citizens. They are technically foreigners now and there are restrictions on foreign influence on US elections. So we should be:
- Stopping former citizens from contributing to political campaigns, PACs and politically active charities;
- Companies they control or directly control should likewise be prohibited from contributing; and
- Any such organization that contributed to political candidates directly or indirectly should be forbidden from accepting foreign money or having such foreigners in any leadership or executive position.
We should probably do something about holding US real estate too but that's a whole other discussion.
Fun fact: the US is becoming a haven for tax avoidance and privacy simply because they're forcing all this disclosure information on other countries and are completely unwilling to reciprocate.
A lot of people concentrate on the super-wealthy renouncing US citizenship. I mean that's going to happen. For people who don't know you get taxed on your holdings at current market rates when you do this. Obviously people still do this because they realize it's going to be cheaper in the long run. I don't really care about that.
What I do care about is removing the political influence of former citizens. They are technically foreigners now and there are restrictions on foreign influence on US elections. So we should be:
- Stopping former citizens from contributing to political campaigns, PACs and politically active charities;
- Companies they control or directly control should likewise be prohibited from contributing; and
- Any such organization that contributed to political candidates directly or indirectly should be forbidden from accepting foreign money or having such foreigners in any leadership or executive position.
We should probably do something about holding US real estate too but that's a whole other discussion.