Accidental Americans

A video clip from NBC Nightly News, 22 April 2018. It's about "accidental Americans". Nothing new, just posting it here for informational purposes.
https://streamable.com/rn4y9

Thanks for the video clip. Nice to know that the subject has actually hit the mainstream TV news in the USA.

The NBC NEWS article accompanying the video:

https://www.nbcnews.com/nightly-news/accidental-americans-living-abroad-fight-tax-bill-uncle-sam-n867711

I think we may be close to seeing citizenship based taxation consigned to history. Please please please everybody write to your Congress member and your MP. We need as many voices as possible speaking out about this injustice. Thank you

I think it's probably more likely that they'll enact some policy that will exempt "accidental Americans," but not us garden-variety moved-overseas-as-adults Americans.  The Accidentals will get a lot of public sympathy. And be a good sound byte in an election year. After all, their status is "not their fault" and Americans tend to look sympathetically towards people in trouble through no fault of their own.

The rest of us "knew what we were getting into" when we moved overseas, so... I'm not terribly optimistic that we'll see the end of citizenship-based taxation any time soon. 

 A lady I work with is “accidental” I joked once if she filed her taxes in America and she looked a me like I was nuts.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Nan, you knew what you were getting into? I didn’t. I moved to the UK in very early adulthood, 20 years ago, and had no idea. Found out a couple years ago via FATCA letter.

I believe that birthplace taxation is unconstitutional and contravenes human rights. We should be fighting this. Even if congress only provides relief to accidentals who left the US before age 5, it’s a start.

A lady I work with is “accidental” I joked once if she filed her taxes in America and she looked a me like I was nuts.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

I know one too. You can only suggest so many times that it's something they should probably look in to, before it starts to get weird!

Nan, you knew what you were getting into? I didn’t. I moved to the UK in very early adulthood, 20 years ago, and had no idea. Found out a couple years ago via FATCA letter.

I believe that birthplace taxation is unconstitutional and contravenes human rights. We should be fighting this. Even if congress only provides relief to accidentals who left the US before age 5, it’s a start.

Oh, I agree. On all your points.

But what they'll say is "you knew what you were getting in to" ~or~ "well, you should have done your homework before you went overseas."  If I hear that in one more conversation I will cease being a nice, polite old lady for a short period of time, and the speaker's nose may have some residual damage thereafter. 

Nan, yes, I know what you mean. It is crazy making. Nobody anywhere else in the world would even imagine such a law could exist, and yet some homelanders think it is normal and ‘you should have known’. Grrrrrrr

On the news this morning they summarized the topics that Macron and Trump discussed, and citizen based taxation did not come up as far as I am aware.

Back in 2013 the US joined with other countries at the UN in condemning Eritrea’s citizenship based taxation.

https://www.tax-news.com/articles/US_Citizenship_Based_Taxation_Unique_or_Outrageous____571149.html

United States occupies a unique position in the world. Well, almost unique. This distinction is shared with one other country. Eritrea.

Yet, at the United Nations, U.S. and other countries condemned the tiny African nation for their practice.

Back in 2013 the US joined with other countries at the UN in condemning Eritrea’s citizenship based taxation.

Hypocritical isn't it?

Hypocritical isn't it?

It certainly is, but no surprise there.

It certainly is, but no surprise there.

I'd love it if other countries started condemning the U.S. like they do Eritrea for their taxation practices.

My spouse and his sibling are Accidental Americans. It made our relationship easier since we didn't need to get married right away to live in the same city, but has been a tax compliance headache for his family since FATCA was introduced. He's thought about renouncing, but we've decided it probably doesn't make practical tax sense until / unless I obtain another citizenship and we renounce together.

If accidentals get tax relief I'm concerned my spouse would no longer qualify for it since he lived in the US with me for a few years as an adult. His sibling definitely would, though.

Oh, I agree. On all your points.

But what they'll say is "you knew what you were getting in to" ~or~ "well, you should have done your homework before you went overseas."  If I hear that in one more conversation I will cease being a nice, polite old lady for a short period of time, and the speaker's nose may have some residual damage thereafter. 

My mom holds this view, unfortunately, and it's probably quite common among Americans. She thinks it's such an honor and privilege to have a US citizenship that paying taxes worldwide is a small price to pay. She feels the same way about accidentals, including my spouse's sibling who wasn't born in the US and has spent very little time there.

I did a ton of research about my US tax requirement before moving and still ran into major unexpected double taxation issues. What drives me craziest about it is that the majority of accountants wanted to charge me almost as much as my company earned in 2017 to make it US tax compliant.