Ask HN: Thinking of moving to Europe from USA

Re:Ask HN: Thinking of moving to Europe from USA by kazinator on Saturday December 31, 2016 @04:38PM (#13293309)

Note that USA citizens living abroad, no matter for how long, are required to pay USA income tax. The only way out of this parasitic arrangement is to give up your citizenship. The USA charges hefty fees for citizenship renouncement. They know you're doing it for money and want to squeeze something out of you before you get away for good.

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Re:Ask HN: Thinking of moving to Europe from USA by johnomarkid on Saturday December 31, 2016 @04:53PM (#13293383)

This is misleading. Income of up to $101,300 is excluded. Also, tax credits are given if the amount you pay in the country you live in is higher than what you would have been paid in the US.

Given that a salary of $101k in Europe is unlikely, and that taxes are almost always higher in Europe than the US, you do not need to worry about paying income tax to the US.

You do, however, need to file a tax return.

I don't support these policies, but I wanted to clarify things for people who could get scared away by your comment. It really isn't that bad.

When U.S. Citizens Living Abroad Owe U.S. Tax: http://www.nolo.com/legal-encyclopedia/when-us-citizens-livi...

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Re:Ask HN: Thinking of moving to Europe from USA by futhey on Sunday January 01, 2017 @02:58AM (#13295045)

Correct. One thing to remember, the $102,100 Foreign Earned Income Exclusion only applies if you spend 330 days of the tax year abroad or have legal residency in the other country (and even in that case you're not supposed to spend more than a few months residing in the US).

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Re:Ask HN: Thinking of moving to Europe from USA by lobster_johnson on Saturday December 31, 2016 @05:03PM (#13293436)

The US has tax agreements with lots of countries that prevent you from being taxed twice on the same income (and for other countries there are still solutions). Plus, you'd only be paying federal-level taxes, since you'd not be a resident of any state. Not sure about social security.

Still, it is of course painful. As someone in the reverse situation (foreigner in the US), I had to pay income tax to Norway for the first three years after moving, with US taxes paid being deducted from what I owed. On the other hand, I did not need to pay the Norwegian equivalent of social security; income tax only.

(Of course, the Norwegian tax system is also 100% digital, with very simple forms that are already filled out for you based on what your employer etc. have already reported to the authorities; the US stuff was just a small additional form. So in reality the painful part was and is the US tax return, which is ridiculously antiquated and complicated and involve lots of paperwork, especially when you have foreign bank accounts.)

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