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Comment by lifeisstillgood | Hacker News Reader

Oh come on guys. Every country has some tax blip that makes it foolish for a small number of people to live in that regieme. Fine. Lets not extrapolate that out to headlines designed to be read as "millions are throwing away their citizenship - its all because we are over taxed!"

Plus please realise America is a low-tax country compared to Europe and Australia because it has a minimal welfare state, compared to Europe and Australia.

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It is more that the USA is one of the few countries that taxes on citizenship rather then residency, so this means that if you are living in another country you are still dealing with USA tax laws as well the tax laws of your country of residency.

It's worth noting that the US has tax agreements with most developed nations, which in theory limits the dual-taxation burden.

In practice, it's allegedly quite a bit of hassle and paperwork and a net expense (regardless of tax agreement).

If you're doing a lot of convoluted business dealings, I imagine it could be a hassle, but for a regular professional expatriate employee I have not found it complex. I earn a salary; I pay Danish taxes on that salary; I deduct the Danish taxes paid from my U.S. tax obligation as a Foreign Tax Credit; and the net result is negative so I pay no U.S. tax.

It would be even easier if I spent less than 35 days/year in the U.S. and qualified for the $95k foreign income exclusion. But even though I don't (I spend ~2 months/yr in the U.S. in an average year), it's still easy enough.

Interesting. Thanks for sharing your perspective. That's certainly encouraging.

USA taxes citizenship, as well as residency (both physical and legal). As a non-us person, I paid more taxes than my friends did. As a permanent resident, I still have to pay taxes if I leave the US - even though I'm not a citizen.

The US also taxes residency (if you aren't a citizen and work in the states) just like any other country.

It's not as simple as saying it's a 'low-tax country compared to Australia'. Perhaps in some states, but not all. The tax I pay in California is very comparable to the tax I paid in Australia.

Meanwhile, living in Australia I had to file a US tax return every year, and have the potential to be taxed on things where no tax exists in Australia (inheritance tax, gift tax).

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