A Growing Trend of Leaving America

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Just an afterthought to my previous post. Since the poster before me mentioned the IRS....In case any expats are not aware, you are still required to file US taxes, regardless if you pay taxes to the country you reside in or not. They want to know any time you have more than $10,000 USD in your foreign accounts. If you're a high level income earner, you risk being double taxed (though with tax treaties and the foreign income exclusion, it's unlikely unless you're a very high earner). It infuriates me. I work in AUSTRALIA and pay taxes to AUSTRALIA. Why is it any of their business? Well, you're left with no choice but to file taxes twice a year....once to your new homeland and once to the USA. What happens if you don't?
Well, I don't completely know the specifics but I do know one woman who moved to Australia. She lived there seven years....four years as a citizen. She went to renew her US passport and they refused it until she filed seven years worth of back taxes.
.....Just giving you a heads up.....because you can not totally escape the death grip that the US has on us all. Even renouncing your citizenship is a right pain in the bum because they want to make sure you're not trying to evade taxes!!

Jarana of IL 10:30AM December 29, 2011

I was born and raised in a small Illinois farm town. I found myself Australia bound in February 2007. I became an Australian citizen (now dual of US and Australia) in June 2010...the absolute best thing I ever did. I could delve into the reasons why I will never again live in the USA but I would end up turning this post into a novel. I'll try to sum it up as short as possible.
I will begin by saying that I am not one of those "grass is always greener" people and definitely see the good and the bad in living abroad. I have travelled extensively, having lived in two other countries aside from the US. Living in Australia, I am fortunate to have a proper wage Even the average McDonald's employee in small town Australia can earn around $21.00AUD per hour..I don't mean at management level either. Minimum wage is more than twice the federal minimum wage in the US. I am on a six figure income that I would have NEVER gotten in my profession if I'd stayed in America. I don't have to worry about going bankrupt because of a medical emergency. I am entitled to four weeks paid holiday time annually. You don't get fired because you have personal/family issues to deal with and need the time off. The downside? It is true, taxes are high but at least we seem to get what we pay for. I'll take the hight cost of living and higher quality of life over the B.S. in the U.S. any day.
Australians are astonished when they hear of the shocking so-called health care system in the US. My own mother had a heart attack. One week in the hospital earned her a $150,000 bill. Being refused medical treatment because you can't pay??? THAT is the thing that is what is most shocking and I myself have been subjected to such horrible alienation by my own American health care system. I have to buy travel insurance to visit the country of my birth. It's a joke. The country is falling apart and I'm just glad I don't have to stick around to be caught in the middle of it.
I have travelled to very few places where anyone actually likes Americans...not Americ-A....I mean Ameri-CANS. Much of the world, quite frankly, despises the American people and some very deluded Americans love to spout off that "they are just jealous of our freedoms." ............I want to throw up in my mouth every time someone says that. It's people like that causing the world to hate Americans. They are so sheltered and/or deluded. They need to get their heads out of Faux News, get a passport and get a life--find out how the rest of the world work.
I figured it out. And because of it, soon, I will be renouncing my US citizenship. I no longer even refer to myself as American unless I'm required to by law. It is no longer the America of my birth. It's the laughing stock of the planet.
I agree with the others advising you to get out. You can't save it so just save yourselves and your families. Go and discover what REAL freedom is all about.

Jarana of IL 10:21AM December 29, 2011

I left years ago, and I am happily living in a country with inexpensive health insurance, free University tuition, clean, safe cities and great public transportation. It's not hard to leave, if you plan and save for about a year, learn the language and make a plan for job-hunting abroad. There is lots of work for teachers, tech professionals, hotel workers, etc. Europe is international, and English is the unofficial 2nd language here.

Tabi 10:55AM December 26, 2011

For a very long time now i have came to the thought of for white males not just black males have no future in this country. Larry is right there is no true freedom, loyality, love, piece, all there truely is is worthless laws that makes no since. If you are not with the "in" crowd then your nothing but an outcast. People that is voted in is worthless and is only that of greedy trash that is worst then trailer trash. I used to love America but now i barely get by with my small life.
How in the world do you make it only on 940 from SSI and a 400 dolar check? There is no way any one can live the "American Dream" which is truely nothing but a dried up joke. Others may have that useless dream but not everyone. I do not hate my country i love America but the asses we voted for turned out to be nothing but used trash.
If one man speaks up he is hunted down and shot dead because he is not with the "system" in truth the country not will but has fallen apart with Bill Clinton as our leader. He signed the free trades act and now America is paying one hell of a dear price for it. There is a old saying not used much anymore and it goes like this. " Love thy country but shy from thy leaders.." Keeping up with the jones is useless unless you like to live in a hell where big busness such as walmart runs the country. America the great is now America the worthless, The reason i say this is because of the fact OUR jobs, economy, credit rating, the very bases of what this country was founded on has been distoried.
Laws that no one can understand, ways that raises red flags for its voters. the truth is i do not wish to live in this country anymore so im working on getting my self a better job so i can leave the land of the lawless. Never again to return to this place.
But there are some rules you must play by in order to leave America and you have to deal with the IRS as well. to make sure they get their trashy money all because we want a better life. There is 312,465,998 of Americans. There is 403 departures of Americans that leave this country every year, and alot of them pick places they love or for some its the first country they land in. They truely know how to live their lives to the fulliest they have ever lived before. Americans are slaves to them selfs and to china. its kinda funny though China owns the country and Walmart runs its. I am just glad i wont have to be a part of that much longer because i am planing to pack my bags and leave as well.

Sena of SC 11:56AM October 21, 2011

I am a black male who functions in the areas of design and technology. Sadly there are no opportunities for me in this place. In addition to being deliberately excluded from opportunities I receive the most negative treatment in the usa. The United States is a very dangerous place for high functioning black males. The threat of crime, police harassment and constant culture of ignorance takes it's toll on men like me. To top it off the lack of proper social support tends to make life a horrible experience. To have no possibility of finding love, marriage or companionship makes life in the United States unbearable. I have tired of being that 1% of black males who are invisible, yet I receive 100% of this nation's resentment and hate. Especially from other black Americans and women. My existence seems to infuriate others more so than a ghetto black man with a gun. i have never seen a place where being smart is treated as a defect in black males. I do not like America and never have. I have since found a better quality of life elsewhere. I am working very hard now to obtain a chance to live that life in that better place. Even if it means me giving up my citizenship. I really hate life in America and I do not want to be here at all! Perhaps it is a great country for some people. But for me it is a nightmare that never ends. I have never fit into this place and never will. They make it very difficult for Americans to leave. This country does not value Men, Father's, education, innovation, experience, the (meaningful) Arts, or positive contribution. There is no investment made in helping Men or boys. American is a money centered matriarchal society that is has contempt for quality, masculinity, 'true' creativity, family and innocence. Ghetto trash, rap, Jerry Springer, whore, criminal culture rules here. it will not be long before this place begins to look like Brazil or somewhere. With corporate controlled waring police military factions vs ghetto drug lords in sectioned off parts of large cities. Why? because America can't invest in Father's, Families and Boys. This place is going to know what happens when you neglect men and people who seek to contribute positively.

Larry of SC 9:30PM October 07, 2011

Politicians and Legislators have swindled America out of it's future.
All that's left is a pilfered cupboard and a trail of lies.
Whatever future there may be looks dismal.
I'm leaving. The show is over.

Randy of FL 5:25PM September 08, 2011

You're the ones who made the US what it is stay and improve your country.
remember wherever you go you will be taking yourself with you.

IR 9:56AM September 05, 2011

My wife and I are planning on leaving the US permanently within the next year. It is for political reasons. The America that I grew up loving no longer exists, and I am fearful of what it is becoming. We are governed by the super wealthy and controlled by outlandish fear-mongering media and manipulation of both left and right wing fringe fanatics. I literally don't feel that it's safe to stay here any longer.

TexasSinkholeFan226 of AL 7:50AM September 03, 2011

leading by example...
still waiting on the zombie apokolypse

sirloin869 of ME 3:31PM September 01, 2011

it seems to be getting dramatically worse in america. i remember a much better time, some 30 years ago. i am shocked that america has turned into this. we have finally woken up and smelled the coffee of truth. i don't understand the endgame of this, but it has to be civil war.

dave b of AL 12:18PM August 11, 2011