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Comment by p_l | Hacker News Reader

Most of the world considers only income and assets that happen to be inside the country to be taxed by that country, yes.

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Except for the US which will tax its citizens anywhere no matter where they derive their income and assets. It is a leading reason why a number of Americans renounce their US citizenship.

[1]https://www.wsj.com/amp/articles/more-americans-are-renounci...

The difference with America is they tax you if you're a citizen, regardless of whether you are abiding (tax resident) there.

Citizens, but not the property owners, which is what is being discussed here.

No, not so! A number of countries consider worldwide income. Generally it must have been taxed somewhere, and in a place with a tax treaty with your primary residence, or it will get taxed as foreign income.

It gets even more complicated with capital gains or losses, and different rules for how losses can be moved between financial years.

a number of countries? really? the usa is the only g7 country to do so. we (the usa) is in good company with countries like libya and north korea...

No, there's an important distinction here. Many countries tax world-wide income, but USA is one of the few that taxes your non-US income even if you are not considered a resident for tax purposes. For example, if you are a Canadian expat and notify the CRA, you do not have to file a tax return at all unless you earn income from Canada. However, if you are a US expat, you still must file US taxes each year (and pay the difference between my local taxes vs. what you would have owed in the US).

Exactly. If you live in a high tax / high social benefit country it isn't so bad, but if you live in a no tax (but high income, high cost) country like the UAE it would be painful. The Foreign Earned Income Exclusion is like $100k but that isn't so much in some countries. Luckily US income taxes are quite (scandalously) low.

(And if you live in the UAE that US passport will be really valuable if you need to avoid having you hand chopped off for pissing off the wrong people.)

US Income taxes are low?

take someone who makes a million+ dollars in california. Their marginal rate is 50% (37% federal + 13% CA, and with the note that the SALT limits due to Trump, dont really get them 37% back on the state tax anymore).

compare this to most european countries where your income tax rate at the top is 50% or less.

now, they have other taxes they pay (social and the like) outside of income taxes, but so does the US. FICA and ss fees also "taxes" in a way.

The marginal rate is really not particularly relevant unless you earn far more than that, which most people don't. What matters is the effective rate, and even California, which is one of the highest taxed states in the US, and so misleading if you want to talk about the overall US tax burden, is lower than a lot of Europe.

I agree with you they're not particularly low, though, especially when factoring in what you get or don't get. E.g. add health insurance into the picture and starts to look very different.

The US is pretty middle of the road in terms of tax.

"No representation without taxation"? Our forefathers would be proud.

The best thing about HN is being downvoted to greyed out when factually correct. "You're opinions offend me Sir, your facts run counter to my views on what the facts should be, and I desire you to depart."

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