WHY should anyone have 2 passports?
Apr 24, 2015, 1:01 pm
#226
Join Date: May 2014
Location: DFW
Programs: IHG Plat, AA GLD, DL FO, Natl Elite
Posts: 259
This was partially true and is now only vaguely true.
What it omits are (and this is far from an exhaustive list):
- filing requirements, now incredibly onerous if you are living abroad as a foreign national (look up FATCA).
- different bases of taxation, thus rendering double tax treaties useless (eg, leaving money to your foreign spouse when you die attracts US tax) or only partially available (eg many of the CGT rules)
- many standard pension schemes in the foreign country fall foul of US rules and therefore are unavailable (here the US has effectively reneged on its treaty obligations)
- non-availability of standard tax-advantaged schemes (obviously you can't invest in US ones when resident abroad, but the US taxes the ones you can invest in).
In short, if you try to be honest, you are clobbered with US tax on anything that is not a straightforward salary - and that's leaving aside the $5-10k annually you pay in the costs of filing.
What it omits are (and this is far from an exhaustive list):
- filing requirements, now incredibly onerous if you are living abroad as a foreign national (look up FATCA).
- different bases of taxation, thus rendering double tax treaties useless (eg, leaving money to your foreign spouse when you die attracts US tax) or only partially available (eg many of the CGT rules)
- many standard pension schemes in the foreign country fall foul of US rules and therefore are unavailable (here the US has effectively reneged on its treaty obligations)
- non-availability of standard tax-advantaged schemes (obviously you can't invest in US ones when resident abroad, but the US taxes the ones you can invest in).
In short, if you try to be honest, you are clobbered with US tax on anything that is not a straightforward salary - and that's leaving aside the $5-10k annually you pay in the costs of filing.
Apr 27, 2015, 7:40 pm
#230
Join Date: Sep 2005
Location: JZRO
Posts: 9,169
"Passport Envy" is a stage theorized by Sigmund Freud regarding travel development, in which holders of one passport experience anxiety upon realization that they do not have two of them. Freud considered this realization a defining moment in a series of transitions toward a mature travel experience and traveler identity. In Freudian theory, the passport envy stage begins the transition from an attachment to the suitcase to competition with the neck pillow for the attention, recognition and affection of the amenities kit.