If you think things are bad now, then, brace yourself: it is about to get a whole lot worse. If you are alarmed at the speed with which the Trump administration has set about dismantling every institution of American government and every pillar of the international order, you must understand that this is not just the initial burst of activity, the “shock and awe” phase after which things will settle down: if anything, the pace will continue to accelerate.
The world has never before been faced with such a threat. The United States has handed the nuclear codes to a madman, a criminal, a would-be dictator and a moron, all in the same person. Whatever the purpose to which he directs these powers – to impress his dictator friends, to further enrich himself and his cronies, to seize absolute power or just to watch the world burn – we must hope for the best, but prepare for the worst.
I’m just hoping it can stay duct taped together long enough for me to get out of country. I don’t know if it will :/ I’ve been doing the protest thing, donating to resistance efforts, boycotts, building community, been doing all of this for years. I’ve never seen it tangibly help and I’m one of the first to get black bagged if/when this goes full genocide (am trans). I can’t do it anymore, my body is aging, my brain is a disaster. I wish I could keep fighting. At least I can bring my labor somewhere else and stop letting my taxes fund the madness that is the US government
Thank you for doing what you can. It’s the only thing we can do. No one can save the world alone.
I hope you get somewhere safe.
Surprise! FATCA taxes Americans no matter where in the world that they work.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foreign_Account_Tax_Compliance_Act
The shit thing, since I don’t make enough to actually pay taxes on my salary, is their PFIC and other rules. I can’t put money in my US retirement accounts. I also can’t use any of the ones here in Japan because, even if I just used them to put money pre-tax into cash savings, they all contain auto-investment rules that makes the target PFICs which are a nightmare.
There are exemptions for most of that if I’m in another country long enough, and ideally I’ll renounce citizenship entirely down the line
FEIE
Thank you so much for doing your part. I don’t blame you for feeling defeated. I hate defeatist attitudes, but it’s hard not to feel like that.