Accidental American - was it a mistake to start filing?

UK/US dual citizen, 'accidental american' here. I recently discovered the mind-boggling, outrageous requirement that all US citizens have to pay taxes worldwide. Frankly, I had zero intention of bowing down to a foreign government, but after much Googling I came to the conclusion that if I don't start filing US tax returns my life will be a living hell. I recently engaged with a US accounting service for expats and I've started the ball rolling on the Streamlined Procedure.

However, I've been reading around a bit on this forum, and other places, and I'm now starting to wonder whether I've made a grave mistake by doing this. I'm worried that I've been suckered in by the all the fear mongering out there and I should have kept my mouth shut.

Here are a few facts about my situation:

• Born in US to non-Americans, but didn't grow up there (I'm English).
• Lived in US for a few years in 90s to attend university (have a SSN and US passport because of this).
• Recently started doing well in my career and began earning over $100k.
• Married to a UK-only citizen.

My concerns are:

• I'll end up paying additonal income tax to the US government on my hard earned money.
• The house my wife and I bought is now worth $270k more than we paid for it. We want to sell and move somewhere else, but I've heard the IRS will tax us capital gains on it. I'm not sure if I can tell them only half the profit is mine (the other half is my wife's)?
• I have a bit of savings now and I was going to put some away in ISAs (like stocks and shares ISAs), but I've read this is a nightmare for UK/US citizens and investing my savings is going to become really difficult for me now.

I'm sure this is all standard stuff for most people, especially for 'real' Americans who emigrated to the UK, but I'm worried that I've opened Pandora's box and, finacially speaking, my life is about to get immeasurably worse. All the fear mongering has me convinced if I didn't go through with this I will be a fugitive from the law whose days are numbered.

Am I worrying over nothing? Or should I brace myself for a difficult road ahead?

My concerns are:
I'll end up paying additonal income tax to the US government on my hard earned money.
The house my wife and I bought is now worth $270k more than we paid for it. We want to sell and move somewhere else, but I've heard the IRS will tax us capital gains on it. I'm not sure if I can tell them only half the profit is mine (the other half is my wife's)?
I have a bit of savings now and I was going to put some away in ISAs (like stocks and shares ISAs), but I've read this is a nightmare for UK/US citizens and investing my savings is going to become really difficult for me now.

I'm sure this is all standard stuff for most people, especially for 'real' Americans who emigrated to the UK, but I'm worried that I've opened Pandora's box and, finacially speaking, my life is about to get immeasurably worse. All the fear mongering has me convinced if I didn't go through with this I will be a fugitive from the law whose days are numbered.

Am I worrying over nothing? Or should I brace myself for a difficult road ahead?

As a US passport holder I think it would only be a matter of time before the US caught up with you so I think it is better to comply with US law now.

My wife and I are also Naturalized US citizens who returned to live in England and we file taxes in both countries.

When filing  our US tax return we claim foreign tax credits against our US taxes for the taxes we pay to HMRC so we end up paying zero US taxes as the UK taxes we pay are higher than the US, on the same income - we have both US and UK pensions. Our son is in a similar situation.

You are correct about stocks and shares ISAs, if you invest in them, you can have them in your wife’s name if she is a UK citizen only as her income is not subject to US taxes.

Half ownership of your house and capital gain is easy to calculate, and since it is your primary residence you should be under the US $250k capital gain allowance on your primary residence. Note however that the calculation on that capital gain is more complicated than you may think as it must factor in the exchange rate to $s at time of purchase and sale plus similar forex gains or losses on a mortgage when you pay it off. Those calculations are definitely above my pay rate, I just know they exist.