If you don't have any desire to return to the US why not just ignore it?
I net in the low 6 figures, via my own consultancy. I have a one man shop which basically incurs the wrath of the IRS because it doesn't fit into the IRS tax code worldview. This is not abnormal, in fact many experienced software people in the city work this way.
I also can't just ignore it. The IRS under the Obama administration launched one of the most aggressive foreign tax ramp ups ever. With FBAR/FACTA, they know everything you have. It is incredibly risky to ignore filing and paying your US tax obligation - they can do all kinds of horrible things, with minimum 10k penalties and foreign agreements in place for enforcement. Plus I have retirement accounts in the US which could be affected.
I could see improving things but your perspective still sounds like whinging. Accounting and filing is the cost of doing business. More troublesome is the SS and other tax contributions you're responsible for, but that just means you should charge more.
To give you a comparison, this sounds to me like people stating we should wipe out student debt. Doing so is inherently regressive. Already well off people go to college anyway and people with a degree make more over their lifetime. They are not the people who need help the most. Likewise, if you are encountering serious financial strain because of this you need to charge more, but you're still making more than most people do.
Neither does investing in a business. You just have to pay taxes on income derived from that business, as normal.
FATCA can be completely nullified by not maintaining foreign bank accounts. Keep your money in the US, problem solved. Maybe that's not an option for everyone but it's still an option.
Buying property exposes you to capital gains tax, which is essentially double taxation, because the UK taxes the buyer unlike the US.
GILTI tax is limited to company ownership. Which is what hit me. I realize that won't affect a lot of people, but for those in the IT field it is very common in London to have a one man or small group consultancy. Because of this, I was essentially retroactively taxed on all company revenues despite not having access to that money (since it's in the company, obviously). Truly insane. Then to pay the retroactive tax, you have to withdraw money from your company which obviously incurs local taxes. Massive double taxation.
This is all the tip of the iceberg. There are many ways to get screwed as an American abroad.
I know money isn't everything, but would be curious to know what is keeping you in London (as someone in an analogous situation asking myself the same question).
That is not even remotely feasible. You pay forex fees every time you buy milk? Lots of government stuff / utility companies will only accept local bank accounts. The hassle and expense of having only a foreign bank account in a foreign currency is massive.
That said, I have recently heard of a new product called the Transferwise Borderless Account that lets you hold money in different currencies, and along with the provisioning of local banking IDs in several jurisdictions like the EU, UK, Au/NZ, Hungary, Romania, Singapore and the U.S. It also comes with a debit Mastercard.
Any thoughts about this?
You couldn't get paid straight into it, so you need to get paid into your home account, then transfer in dollars, then convert them into local currency, so you're still doing two forex transactions. Better than one for each purchase, but will not ideal. Also, it's still not a real local bank account, so all the problems wrt government and bills still apply.
I'm thinking this could be quite useful for digital nomads.
"MYR is considered to be a restricted currency, which implies an inherent limitation to the tradability of this currency. Fund transfers in this currency are not allowed outside of Malaysia"
Lets say you work in Malaysia; your salary is paid in MYR as its legally required to be. You can't get a bank account with most banks because US passport - therefore you can't get a MYR bank account.
I have already made up my mind to renounce, due to the immense stress and uncertainty. But you can’t even do that because all embassies are closed until further notice. Top that with the hefty fees to file the exit taxes and the renunciation fee and it’s a giant shit sandwich.
I advise never living abroad if you are an American. And think very carefully before getting permanent residence or US citizenship as a foreigner. You are becoming an inmate of the IRS for life.