The US government's attempt to steal money from American expatriates....

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http://www.economist.com/finance/displaystory.cfm?story_id=11554721

QUEUES of frustrated foreigners crowd many an American consulate around the world hoping to get into the United States. Less noticed are the heavily taxed American expatriates wanting to get out—by renouncing their citizenship.

Under the proposed legislation, expatriates surrendering their citizenship with a net worth of $2m or more, or a high income, will have to act as if they have sold all their worldwide assets at a fair market price. If the unrealised gains on these assets exceed $600,000, capital-gains tax will apply. A study by the Congressional Budget Office guesses that the new law will progressively net the government up to $286m over five years. It is unclear, however, why people would suffer the consequences if they did not expect to save money in the long run by escaping American taxes.

That expats want to leave at all is evidence of America's odd tax system. Along with citizens of North Korea and a few other countries, Americans are taxed based on their citizenship, rather than where they live. So they usually pay twice—to their host country and the Internal Revenue Service. As this makes citizenship less palatable, Congress has erected large barriers to stop them jumping ship. In 1996 it forced people who renounced citizenship to continue paying income taxes for an extra ten years. Theoretically, the new law allows for a cleaner break.

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Same with Aussies, they are stuck paying tax no matter where they live.....and I understand their gov also makes it hard to renounce. Causes some 'social problems' here as Canadians, Brits can get out of tax, locals are untaxed - but Americans/Aussies are stuck paying income tax even though they live here, so obviously they take home less money than most of us do...

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Same with Aussies, they are stuck paying tax no matter where they live.....and I understand their gov also makes it hard to renounce. Causes some 'social problems' here as Canadians, Brits can get out of tax, locals are untaxed - but Americans/Aussies are stuck paying income tax even though they live here, so obviously they take home less money than most of us do...

Renunciation.

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Same with Aussies, they are stuck paying tax no matter where they live.....and I understand their gov also makes it hard to renounce. Causes some 'social problems' here as Canadians, Brits can get out of tax, locals are untaxed - but Americans/Aussies are stuck paying income tax even though they live here, so obviously they take home less money than most of us do...

Is that for real? I never heard of that and I have several friends (Aussies) who are working overseas.

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Is that for real? I never heard of that and I have several friends (Aussies) who are working overseas.

Yes, I'm serious.

If Aussies are working in taxed nations like US, Canada, UK etc - then they just pay to that government... but if they are working in a nation that doesn't have income tax - then they must pay it to the Australian government.

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Talk about gayer than...