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Comment by chimeracoder | Hacker News Reader

> Disclaimer: I am an international tax lawyer.

Alright, I'll take your word for it then.

> You will, however, pay two metric shit-tonnes in professional fees getting your U.S. tax returns prepared because the international tax rules are so ridiculous

So, instead of getting shafted by paying Uncle Sam, I'll get shafted by paying a tax attorney. :)

Either way, there is a financial disincentive to working abroad, and that's not taking into account the fact that this is a disincentive to look for jobs abroad (speaking for myself, I'd want to figure out the financial implications before seeking employment abroad, and this creates yet one more hurdle).

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There is an extreme financial disincentive for Americans to work abroad. If you travel frequently to Dubai (as an example) as I do, it will astonish* you to discover very few Americans working there, but tons of British, Australian, South African, etc. people busily making a living, building a business, etc.

The reason is taxation. Americans working in Dubai (no income tax there) must still pay U.S. income tax and pay a ton to get the tax returns done correctly. A British citizen working in Dubai pays nothing to Inland Revenue and does not file a U.K. income tax return.

Question: who is cheaper to hire, if you are an employer in Dubai?

Hint: that's why all of the international bankers are NOT American.

-------

* Sarcasm.

EDIT: this is one reason why our law firm has a booming business in expatriation -- people giving up U.S. citizenship/green cards.

This effect is biggest in low tax countries because of the credit US citizens end up paying the HIGHER of US and local income taxes (more or less - rules are complex).

Also see relatively few Americans in Hong Kong and Singapore which have low tax rates like Dubai. Unlike almost everyone else in the world there is no benefit for Americans to work in low tax countries because they still end up paying US tax rates. If a company hires an Austrailian and an American in Hong Kong the American ends up with less after tax income. So the draw to these places is much less for US citizens.

There is still a benefit, because you pay only federal income taxes, but not state taxes and you do not pay various other taxes such as medicare surcharge on investment income. So if you are from a high tax state in the U.S. ( California or NY ), it may still make sense.

>there is a financial disincentive to working abroad, and that's not taking into account the fact that this is a disincentive to look for jobs abroad

If you don't want to do something, you can always rationalize it. If really wanted to work in Berlin or elsewhere, you'd do it, and it wouldn't be a big deal.

> If really wanted to work in Berlin or elsewhere, you'd do it, and it wouldn't be a big deal.

This is simply getting at the notion of the premium - how much I value working abroad.

A more formal way of asking this question, assuming for simplicity a $100K/year salary:

"How attractive (measured in dollars) is the idea of working in Berlin?"

If it's worth $30,000/year, you'll do it as long as you can make 70% of your US salary or more. Otherwise, it's not worth it.

It's not a matter of "not wanting to do something" - it's a matter of the opportunity cost. In this case, the opportunity cost of working abroad for US citizens is high (see philiphogden's comments), so the only people who will do it are the people who can rationalize taking a financial hit.

So yes, the answer is "you want it, just not enough". But the following question is, "how much should someone have to want to work abroad in order to do it?"

Berlin is 3 times cheaper in terms of rent & food than San Francisco.

I don't know if it's 3 times, but I could easily bet on a "at least twice".

well, that's true but you only get ~30% to 50% of the salary (amount in EURO) compared to SV and you have to pay around 48% taxes on your income.

You have to pay taxes of 48% for everything above 52k€ salary. If you earn 60k€, you have to "only" approx pay 30% taxes.

Berlin is a relatively cheap place to live. So depending on where you live now you might actually need much less money when living in Berlin.

Most of the US (not NYC, DC, SF) is far cheaper than Europe in general. Even Seattle is cheaper on average.

> Even Seattle is cheaper on average.

Unless you mean "cheaper than Europe in general", I guess these sites could use your input:

http://www.numbeo.com/cost-of-living/compare_cities.jsp?coun...

http://www.expatistan.com/cost-of-living/comparison/seattle/...

Berlin is much cheaper than most of western europe or germany because of the long term economic effects of being part of east germany. A more apt comparison then would be frankfurt vs seattle or detroit vs berlin. Also expatistan just uses the expensive part of town

Don't forget you will be building up an German pension as well.

I considered going for some dutch jobs one of the reasons woudl be I that I have the max no of qualifying years in the UK pension scheme.

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