There were only “two parties in all States,” Randolph concluded. “The ins and the outs.” The ins construed governmental power broadly for the gain of their own “patronage and wealth,” while the outs tried to limit such power. “But let the outs get in . . . and you will find their Constitutional scruples and arguments vanish like dew before the morning sun.”

That’s actually libertarian idiot 101, different class, held in the garage of a disheveled rancher flying a gadsden flag.

But if you live overseas you in fact do not live in a state.

I addressed that in a comment but I did not include that in the body.

fixed.

The FEIE is super simple to fill out.

I heard you need to file every year even if you’ve never lived in the US.

That’s so cool!

How old (ish) were you when you moved?

Did you speak any Japanese before?

Any consideration towards relocating again?

Any other stories you want to share?

ありがとうございます、友達

Tax accountants:

correct, yes.

I was trying to tactfully point out your comment’s redundancy, given the specific post title and body explanation of US tax code relevancy.

it’s sort of like I made a post about male seahorses giving birth, and you pointed out that male zebras do not give birth.

correct, for sure.

oh i see. thanks.

yea, the 1116 is for people paying formal taxes to the foreign government directly, usually because you’re living there as a permanent resident or operating a business full-time and significantly, have established your permanent tax home in that other country.

using the 1116, you don’t pay all of the taxes twice, although you still pay some of them twice because the US wants that cash.

the FEIE, form 2555, means that your tax is still in the US and only requires that you’re not in the US for 330 days out of the year to exempt income tax on up to 125k of income earned while outside of the country.

the feie does have a residency test as well, but the physical presence qualification of 330 days each year is simpler and requires much less trouble to set up initially (permanent residency, switching tax homes, work permits and all that) to qualify for, so I only deal with the physical presence test.

There is a system whereby foreign banks are obligated to report accounts held by Americans to the US for “anti terrorism” purposes.

And as a us citizen you are also obligated to report all of your foreign accounts in a FBAR filing each year.

Perhaps I’m the one who misread. I took OP’s comment as saying working for a foreign company with no presence in the US while living in the US. On a second read, that might not be what they meant.

“Does the IRS have authority to issue such requests to foreign banks?”

issue requests, sure.

and companies with an international presence or countries with a working relationship with the US would be happy to respond to the IRS at least in rough confirmation.

4 out of 5 people in the US would never have to worry about making more than $125 k a year, but if you’re reporting $60,000 annual income and then buying a house every year, the IRS would start looking into it.

irs interest depends on how large the income disparity appears to be before they start officially investigating and probing for more certain corroboration and confirmations.

it’s just like your taxes in the US.

If you have a yard sale and don’t report it, the IRS isn’t going to pay attention to the extra $200 you didn’t report that year unless you happened to sell a personal boat later that year for 200k.

it’s all about what flags the interest of the IRS.

“How would the IRS even know what foreign bank to issue these requests to?”

If you have over 10,000 usd abroad in total, all foreign holdings included, you are required to file what is called an fbar that year, which really is I think five fields on one form, you fill out the name of the Bank, address, the country and the amount.

that’s so the IRS can keep tabs on. approximately how much you’re making versus how much you say you’re making if you’re keeping your savings overseas.

“…gets tracked on a per-individual basis.”

No worries, these are all great questions and I’m treating them like a refresher course.

The IRS is largely dependent on self-reporting whether us citizens or residents are inside or outside of the country, which largely works because maintaining a believable fiction about your income is not easy to consistently pull off and consequences for self-reporting income incorrectly are so much higher than the amount of taxes most people are going to pay that it makes sense to self-report as accurately as you can.

1. tldr: "30 grand will last you at least 5 years of very comfortable living if you’re at all trying to budget wisely.

2. the easiest and most immediately profitable is English teacher, but remote work is vast and covers every field, so it really depends on what you’re interested in.

1 full)

totally depends on your habits and proclivities, but I lived on less than $300 a month for about a year. a lot of hostels in Asia and Europe have monthly discounts and they’re already like $7 a day. in Asia they can be $2 a day for a bunk bed in a room.

private rooms are 10 to 15 bucks a day, but if you’re going to do that then just go to a hotel and pay for the month, which you can easily get for $200 to $300 a month all utilities included.

I’ve been doing this a while, so right now I’m living in India paying $300 a month for a private two-bedroom two bathroom full kitchen, living room and dining room house plus rooftop terrace parking garage, the whole package, all utilities included plus free unlimited Wi-Fi.

about $0.90 will get you at one entree of chili goby, 2 to 4 rotis and a side of dal or curry.

kabobs are about $0.20 here, potstickers are up to $0.10 each.

anyway, you can live extremely cheaply in the beginning and then figure out what you want and go from there.

If you have 30 grand and no experience traveling, you can rent private condos or houses in a couple dozen countries off tge top of my head for less than 500 USD a month, all utilities included.

in the cheaper countries, you can spend $20 a day eating out at the fancier restaurants or go to the mom and pop shops or cook yourself and spend $1-3 a day on simpler meals.

If you want to pamper yourself and live in more expensive countries, you can double all those prices, but the more you travel the better you’ll get at traveling and finding good prices.

30 grand will last you at least 5 years if you’re at all watching your money,.

annually, you only need a couple thousand to live indoors and eat as much as you want, several thousand to to live privately end comfortably and enjoy entertainment everyday, and a few thousand after that to splurge most of the year.

2 full)

important consideration is that you only need to make five grand a year for all of your expenses well traveling in the more affordable countries (of which there are dozens), anything after that is play money.

If you have zero skills or certifications, English teaching is the easiest and quickest way to make money. you’re instantly making $12 to $20 an hour repeating primary colors and fundamental vocabulary to smart well-behaved children for 45 minutes at a time.

you can get a tefl certification for 40 bucks on Groupon, that lasts for a lifetime and increases your pay up to $20 even without experience.

or you can just fly over to China and you’ll get a job that week starting at an absolute minimum of $12 if you fuck up the interview and dress like a homeless person.

Last I checked, Saudi Arabia (and some provinces in China) was paying $6,000 US a month for English teachers.

that’s the easiest, but there are plenty of other jobs you can do.

there are too many jobs to list, you can write articles if you’re good at writing, you can get free it certifications and work as an SEO optimizer, you can literally pick berries and work seasonally in some countries.

I knew a Spanish couple who are just trying to choose a country and they just moved to whichever place had berry picking work that year, worked a couple days a week.

If I know your interests, talents or proficiencies I can suggest more specific jobs in that field, but again, you only need to make five grand a year to live very comfortably, and you only need a couple grand to live in a dorm and eat good food everyday.

If you have those savings you’re talking about, you have a minimum of 5 years to figure out a way to make $5,000 bucks a year to maintain your standard of living, although you’ll probably save money the longer you travel.

not if you are earning that money while you are outside of the country.

so if you do remote work for a US company that pays money to your us Bank account but you are outside of the country for 330 days, then you don’t pay taxes on the first 125k of your income that year.

here’s how the IRS explains it:

“The source of your earned income is the place where you perform the services for which you receive the income. Foreign earned income is income you receive for performing personal services in a foreign country. Where or how you are paid has no effect on the source of the income. For example, income you receive for work done in France is income from a foreign source even if the income is paid directly to your bank account in the United States and your employer is in New York City.”

https://www.irs.gov/individuals/international-taxpayers/foreign-earned-income-exclusion-what-is-foreign-earned-income

Great question!

set his own shoelace on fire and then tied it to the scarecrow to set it ablaze.

what a coup de gras!