Up until 2010 - basically NOBODY abroad filed a tax return and it was not enforced by the IRS. FATCA forced the foreign banks share data and in turn with FBAR (the real culprit) forced compliance upon 9 million expats or face huge fines. It really sucks and is totally unfair. The only other country on planet earth that enforces citizenship based taxation is Eritrea. So we pay income tax to a country where we don’t even leave and meanwhile, illegal aliens rape the entitlement systems - and pay no income tax - WTF? It is too low on the political correctness totem-poll for any bi-partisan solutions and the only way out is a whoppin $2350 renunciation fee. That’s not all folks - non-us citizen spouses „get“ to pay, too - without receiving any rights of a citizen (see illegal aliens above). Lastly, the accountant charges app. $1000 per tax return - because no mere mortal can find the way through the labyrinth. Obama, Warren, Sanders and the rest of the Dems that passed the legislation can kiss my ass, i renounced. Do a twitter search on #FATCA and learn about how much it sucks!
We should, at least in some instances. There's a big difference between a law that's designed to protect the public, and a tax law that's designed to generate revenue. It seems highly illogical to have a tax law on the books that costs significantly more to enforce than the revenue it brings in. Look at it from a different angle. If we threw hundreds of billions of dollars at our southern border, it would greatly help to enforce our immigration laws. That doesn't necessarily mean it would be fiscally responsible. I think we need common sense when it comes to things like this.
I propose the "war on drugs" be the 1st in the chopping block. Followed second by the "immigration crisis"
Again, the law on worldwide taxation of income for US citizens goes back to the civil war. This isn't some new thing. What sucks and is unfair is that thousands of people who owed US taxes and didn't pay them while the rest of us did, for decades! Crying that it's unfair to make them comply with the same law the rest of us comply with is the ultimate snowflake move! You have a beef with the law take it up with the folks that passed it, not the people enforcing it. And just as an FYI illegal migrants pay billions of dollars in taxes in the U.S. while for the most part not getting any benefits like SS or Medicaid, so they're the ultimate positive to our tax base, they pay in and don't get benefits! On the other hand, it's completely unreasonable for you to expect the benefits of US citizenship without paying a dime and completely reasonable to ask you to renounce if you don't want to pay, otherwise you're just claiming that you'll never benefit but as soon as it becomes worthwhile to you you'll be leaching off the country we all supported but you couldn't be bothered to. Just don't let the door hit your ass on the way out, good riddance!
Where does the concept of deterrence fit in there? You have a poster immediately above yours who agrees that nobody paid taxes on their overseas income until this law passed. Again I'd love to see the source for this meme that the law costs more than it takes in. Since it can't be produced I'm going to call bullshit on it altogether, but even if it does exist I'm guessing it's citing the actual fines collected which is of course hopelessly oversimplistic. I would also disagree with your deeper point. If a revenue law cost more to enforce than it brings in we should absolutely not stop enforcing it, we should instead remove the law. Unenforced tax law leads to contempt of the law and eventually to a Greece tax collection situation, and there's a pretty rich body of evidence showing that behavior pattern in a general sense and specifically related to taxes.
On a side note, I don't understand why people need dual citizenship. I would assume most of these folks are the product of "birth tourism" when mothers come here for the sole purpose of obtaining citizenship for the baby. If you have no intention to live here, let alone pay taxes, you really should forgo your citizenship.
In my experience it's the opposite, children of expats who are US citizens who never moved back to the US. But, they do have all the benefits of US citizenship. If you're also a French citizen, for example, and never plan to take advantage of any US programs, work in the US, or live there, then it makes sense for you to renounce. But it isn't fair to claim you have no obligation to the country while insisting you retain eligibility to obtain all the benefits of citizenship.
I tend to agree. Ineffective or outdated laws should be repealed as opposed to going unenforced. We would probably see this happen more often if our government wasn't so dysfunctional. I've heard that FATCA has only brought in a fraction of what it was expected to, but I've never seen an overall cost to benefit analysis. So I couldn't really tell you if it's effective or not.
Exactly a non citizen has to pay just because. That is clearly guilt by association and with the world being less than 6° degrees of seperation that everyone will have to pay the IRS in the near future. So the US wants to change it's role from the global police force into to the planetary tax collector. Ok to to exo-patriate. AKUMA