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Comment by gambiting | Hacker News Reader

Are you serious? To me, as a person from EU, it seems insane that a country where I haven't actually earned the money would want to tax it in any way or form. That's just ridiculous. You should pay income tax in the country where you made money. And why should I keep citizenship of a country that I moved out of? Because...I want to? Because I feel like a citizen of a country even if I live and make my living somewhere else? Doesn't mean that that country has any right to a part of my income.

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A lot of what you ask seems that it could be a personal question depending on who you ask.

I certainly wouldn't presume or preach to others with regards to how they view their country, however:

1. We (I'm an expat as well) pay little taxes to the U.S. because of the foreign earned income credit. The paperwork is onerous, yes. But it's not as bad as some make it out to be, unless you're in an exceptional income bracket.

2. A U.S. passport is a powerful thing. And as the OP mentioned, the benefits are real. We look after our own. http://www.passportindex.org/byRank.php

3. Many U.S. expats wouldn't dream of renouncing their citizenship, because it simply means more to them than that.

It's more than residency, it's identity. And it's something we pay into. Many Americans will tell you...they don't like a lot of taxes...but they /will/ pay taxes, and they expect everyone to. It's a "we're all in this together" bit. Even if you're abroad, and you're paying a paltry amount, you're still chipping in.

Just something many of us do.

It's more than residency, it's identity.

This is the part that often (note: not always) leads to valuing an American higher than a non-American. I have real problems with that. 911 is virtually celebrated, while larger tragedies the world over are not. What makes an American soldier's life more worthwhile than a baby born with Aids in some African backwater? If you believe all the flag-waving, nationalism. Otherwise media.

And I get that small number of deaths is a tragedy, a large number is a statistic. That doesn't change the reality - a life is valuable no matter who's it is, and where that person lives.

I'm a citizen of the world. I was born in Africa, have lived in the US, and now live in Europe. I rate myself as no better or worse than anyone else on this planet, including Americans. Most of all I'm insanely grateful to not be American.

This doesn't really apply to expats, but income tax isn't really about income, it's about funding all the public services you use. There are problems right now in parts of Canada where wealthy people from other countries are sending their families here and staying to work in their home countries. Their families live in multimillion dollar houses and get hundreds of thousands a year in "child support", but they also consume a lot of public services that they never paid into, like roads, healthcare, schools, and sometimes even welfare. Millionaires are getting welfare! It's insane.

That sounds like "child support" should be taxed then. If expats can send "millions of dollars" to family in Canada and they don't pay a single cent as tax, then it's a tax system problem. And hey, on the other hand, if that family spends those millions in Canada, then it's a net benefit :P I'm sure even if the "income" is not taxed, all the money they spend actually is, so their amount of taxes paid to Canada might be significant.

For sure it's a tax system problem, but in the usual case (where it was already taxed once in Canada) it makes sense not to double-tax child support.

AFAICT most of the money isn't spent here, it's parked here as a hedge in case something goes south in the home country, usually in real estate holdings. The biggest effect I can see is that housing in the city is too expensive for the locals now so families are being driven out into rural areas.

Why? Why should the location of where you make money matter? If I make a million dollars in Indiana, I need to pay taxes on it. If you make it in Hong Kong, you shouldn't?

It's not like federal income is an admission fee. Or a direct tax on something the citizen uses (like a toll road). You benefit just as much from the government building a VA hospital, AIDS research, or a US carrier stationed near Syria.

You don't suddenly stop being an American when you go live somewhere else.

I don't think we will ever agree on this. I think income tax should only be paid in the country where you made the money, because the money comes from a business in that country. You think you should also pay it in the country where you are from, because you should support it(even if that country hasn't done anything to help you earn that money). To me, that sounds insane. To you, it doesn't. I'm not sure we can reach an understanding.

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