True but figuring out the forms to get to that point can itself be a nightmare. Everybody I know who has had to go through that process needed a filing extension.
And, of course, our tax system is designed to favor the big tax preparers more than simplicity in filing. The vast majority of US taxpayers don’t have complex taxes but then who would take care of the poor, poor stockholders in TurboTax, H&R Block, etc?
It is not the paying taxes that is burdensome, thought it can be, it is the filing that is a pain. When I moved overseas, I went from doing all the tax preparation myself, to hiring a company that specialized both in the local tax law and US tax law, so that I would not end up paying taxes both places. If the US did not have the requirements they have, then I could have continued to do my own taxes and simply pay the ones for where I reside without worrying about having the right forms, showing the correct exchange rate, etc. in order not to pay anything in the US. You do get an automatic extension, but that would not be needed if they did US did not have the requirements it does.
Additionally, some banks will not take you as a client if they know you are US citizen. I believe I mentioned this in another thread, but I was talking to a British National who had to prove to his bank that he was British because his name was in English and they thought he might be an American and they wanted to cancel his account.
Just quoting these two sentences for emphasis. For the last fifteen years, I have owed $0 to the IRS, but have spent an inordinate amount of time and money establishing that to their satisfaction. Edit: and that money was spent in Canada, so did not even contribute to the American economy.
“You have to be, in many cases, you need 185 IQ to turn on a lawnmower.”
“We’re also gonna give the tractor companies, John Deere and all of the companies that make the equipment, we’re gonna take off a lot of the environmental restrictions that they have on machinery. It’s ridiculous. I know because I buy a lot of that machinery… it’s not as good as the old days."
“I say that our soybeans – I told this to President Xi – our soybeans are more nutritious than competitors. Somebody said, ‘Is that a Trump statement, or is that real?’ You know who asked me that question? President Xi. But that’s what I hear.”
To everyone’s great surprise, the mother of Karoline Leavitt’s nephew who was picked up by ICE, is NOT an absentee illegal alien mother with a previous arrest record for battery who supposedly hasn’t spoken with Leavitt for years.
She is out on bond for now.
Per the Washington Post:
A longtime resident of Massachusetts, Ferreira came to the United States in 1998 at age 6 to join her parents after being raised by her grandmother in Brazil. At one point Ferreira faced possible deportation, but in 2012 she became eligible for an Obama-era program for undocumented immigrants who arrived as children. This year, as part of the president’s mass deportation campaign, the Trump administration restarted her deportation case, according to Ferreira’s lawyers. Most of her family has legal status, but Ferreira has not been able to complete that process, her lawyers said.
Ferreira said she dreamed of attending Harvard Law School and becoming a lawyer when she was younger but because she was in the country illegally, she had far fewer opportunities than her younger brother and sister, who were born in the United States.
Ferreira’s lawyer, Todd Pomerleau, said she has no criminal record. He says DHS may be alluding to a 2008 incident when she was summoned to juvenile court after a fight with another girl outside a Dunkin’ Donuts over $8. He said Ferreira was never arrested and the case was dismissed. Because it was in juvenile court, he said it was not a criminal matter and was supposed to be confidential. She was 16 at the time.
There’s much more about how she is not an absentee mother, and how the estranged ex has often threatened to report her to ICE. “DHS has not explained why Ferreira was arrested when the administration says it is focusing on detaining violent criminals. Her lawyers contend that video indicates officers were specifically out in search of Ferreira when they detained her.” https://wapo.st/49ZuxIYhttps://wapo.st/49ZuxIY https://wapo.st/4oJHXMS
Supreme Court arguments: The high court appears ready to side with President Donald Trump on the firing of a member of the Federal Trade Commission. Liberal justices warned today that backing Trump could “destroy the structure of government”
Do they know that “destroying the structure of government” is the actual end game here? That their colleagues on the court see this as a good thing?
The felon himself has already said and proven that is his very aim: destroying the structure of our government. Odd thing, though, that just might be the one thing he’s any good at.
If that was addressed to me. Icon got it right. In prosperous years, I owe the USA taxes. I still need to send some form to them.
I am never going to live (again) in the USA in my lifetime. Yet I’m not going to pay the USA $3,000 for the right to throw my passport at them like Oswald did.
Was that to me too? I have a Russian wife who, as a professor in St. Petersburg University taught English and has almost no accent. We are both open to being spies, though she’d either be a double agent as Putin has fucked her life up. And who am I spying for? The UK against the USA? Or maybe say I’m a marine biologist and get a job on the Yantar yet my Russian Fish Vocabulary is lacking. Sabotaging undersea cables - I can learn enough.
They may be legally expected to do so, but it’s not as if the IRS will come looking for them in Benelux if they don’t. It’ll only be a problem if they decide to move to the States, and now they have another reason not to. That’s always been my approach.
I have a Russian wife who, as a professor in St. Petersburg University taught English and has almost no accent. We are both open to being spies, though she’d either be a double agent as Putin has fucked her life up. And who am I spying for? The UK against the USA? Or maybe say I’m a marine biologist and get a job on the Yantar yet my Russian Fish Vocabulary is lacking. Sabotaging undersea cables - I can learn enough.