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Comment by VWWHFSfQ | Hacker News Reader

Americans living in other countries don't want to pay taxes anymore. Apparently the only option is to stop being an American, which she has decided to do.

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It is not about paying taxes as its likely she was not paying any to the US. This is what the unique tax treaties cover. You still however have to prove this every year.

One of the worst parts about this situation is the difficulty in investing from abroad. Can't buy US ETFs/Mutual funds because they don't report properly abroad and can't buy foreign ETFs/Mutual funds because they don't want to report to US. This is a totally unnecessary financial burden on US Expats.

>I pay almost $1000 per year to an accountant to fill out the forms—more and lengthier than they’d be if I lived in the US—only to prove I owe nothing, since I pay taxes here in the Netherlands.

Apparently she wasn't paying taxes (to the US) anyways.

Then I'm even less clear on what her issues were. Somehow this is reminding me of that girl that took $350,000 in debt to get a Theater Management degree from Duke University and then blogged about how criminal the American higher education system is and how she was running off to Russia with her husband to escape the crippling debt.

It's like, you took almost half a mil in debt to go to a PRIVATE SCHOOL to get a degree that you would have no hope of ever using to pay back your _crippling debt_. Student load debt is a real problem in USA..but that's not it.

The understanding I came away with from skimming was it had to do with an ideological railing against the FATCA reporting requirements. And shame; lots of shame.

> Then I'm even less clear on what her issues were

I think the issues are pretty simple; if you are a US citizen but living and working in another country permanently with no US local income, she found the impact of FACTA and tax reporting obligations to be too expensive and or pain-in-the-butt to make it worth keeping her US citizenship.

There are very real impacts and constraints on ex-pats in this situation; whether or not they are worth it to you is a personal evaluation I suppose.

This is nothing like the schoold debt issue you describe.

Ah OK. So now it makes sense why this woman renounced her USA citizenship

She wanted to still be an American, but didn't want to do the yearly paperwork to keep her citizenship.

Got it.

It's not just your paperwork. In many countries you'll be denied seemingly basic financial services by institutions because FACTA would make their paperwork too much hassle.

OK then she should just keep being an American. Right?

Renouncing citizenship makes that all go away. Her call.

I'm wondering why you're being so judgmental of this woman. What offends you so much about her legitimate decision to do this? You might not agree with her reasons, but are you really in a place to decide that her feelings, frustrations and her decision are invalid and inconsequential? It's not like she's antivaxx. This doesn't hurt anybody. How about seeking to understand instead being so argumentative over nothing?

Paying $1,000 a year to file a form that says you don't owe taxes doesn't seem like a problem to you?

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