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Comment by crdoconnor | Hacker News Reader

She isn't the reason this article appeared in the BBC (it's effectively a reprinted press release, cf. Paul Graham's submarine).

She also earns a good salary and is dropping citizenship basically in order not to have to fill out a form once a year.

Either that or she's expecting a pay raise from her "humble" salary and will have to start paying a small amount of US tax.

Either way, my sympathy dial isn't moving.

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You are completely wrong and people with your attitude are part of the reason we expats are suffering.

Studies repeatedly show that that that majority of almost 8 million Americans living abroad moved to look for work, to find love, explore the world, do volunteer work, teach, and so on. We're largely middle class, just like most Americans back home. We're not rich (many of us teaching or volunteering are dirt poor), but we're putting up with a tax horror that Americans back home would revolt over if they had to endure it.

None of that puts her in the 1%. If she cared that much about tax she wouldn't be living in France. If you read the article you'd see it's because these people are having their bank accounts closed, or being unable to open them because of the onerous restrictions that Fatca puts on banks with expat American customers.

It sounds more as if she is having difficulty getting access to banking facilities on account of the additional reporting requirements the US insists on.

Please consider reading the article again (and put some WD-40 on that dial, friend!)

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