CT is kind of right.You can move all your money outside the USA, but the IRS will come for you if you owe tax and do not pay. And, if you file a tax return saying you own no money, and you do, you may have a pissed off IRS collections agent. (Have a friend dealing with this right now with his daughter, who failed to file 1040s for about 10 years, in what appears to be an innocent mistake.)
If you move to a country and do move your money out, and the country has a reciprocal tax agreement with the USA, you are not off the hook.
And, the USA is more tolerate of certain people becoming dual citizens these days. It appears that if you are female, (any age), or males, well pass military age, getting "permission" to become a dual citizen appears to be easier so that you can take advantage of various social and health programs. And, some (many, not so many?) countries will allow foreigners to own land and a house, with restrictions mind you, especially if they are buying in "tourist areas."
And, while the SSA does need your current address, even if overseas, it really doesn't care that it is overseas. My friend above does not have a USA address but gets his SSA mail via the embassy who dumps it into the local postal system. I have read that the SSA will even wire your money to some foreign banks..... but I am fuzzy on this.
Been over here for years, with friends that have been here for decade +. Tax and SSA problems are not high on our discussion lists.
Lee Ankara, turkey On Oct 1, 2008, at 1928, CT wrote:Moving money out of the country is too easy for such a 20% forfeiture to ever be collected. Sounds fishy.
When moving permanently overseas, there’s no requirement to relinquish (called ‘repudiation’) one’s citizenship but some people do it in order to take advantage of foreign country social programs. Typically those people have strong personal ties to that country already. As well, for example, as ‘bella stated, many countries require local citizenship to own land.
The Social Security Administration relies on your “tax home” (for most people) to track your address. There’s no requirement I’m aware of to inform the SSA directly of a change of address within or out of the US. Maintaining a US-based address is easy. With a bank account and ATM/credit card, life overseas goes on rather easily. Sure, there are hiccups with taxes, large money transfers, etc. but at my meager income levels, it’s never been that hard.
CT 30°24'43.07"N 88°34'1.90"WFrom: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:liveaboard- [EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Philip & Marilyn
Sent: Wednesday, 01 October 2008 07:35 To: [email protected]Subject: Re: [Liveaboard] http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080929/tv_nm/ us_americatown
All should be aware that Congress passed, as an amendment to another Bill, signed into law that says if an American Citizen gives up his/ er citizenship and becomes a citizen of another country they will forfeit 20% of their cash and investments. Sort of a grand departure tax. Not well known, I only found it by luck. Sorry - can't provide the link.
ALSO Social Security requires that you notify them if you change your residency to one outside the country. Not to hard to jump from that to cutting off your check if you do.
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