I may have mentioned that this year I was so confused by my US taxes (yes, I have to file a US tax return, contrary to the rules of almost every civilised country in regards to their expats) that I decided to get a professional to do them. I got the results today. Because I have an ISA (UK tax-free investment account) I have to pay $55 to the United States (as the interest on that account is not taxed here, I cannot set it off against UK taxes).
My blood is boiling.
I know it probably isn’t terribly much as far as the taxes of my US friends are concerned, but you get US government services. I get zilch from the US except a tax return each year and the opportunity to vote in Federal elections. Fat lot of good that’s done me in the last 8 years.
I immediately emailed the accountant to ask what he knew about the financial ramifications of renouncing US citizenship (I know, I’ve talked about that before, but if they’re going to screw me for saving, I might as well go through with it) and he doesn’t know anything and advised against it. When I explained that I couldn’t move back to the US because of the high cost of health care that I’d need, the fact that I could not take HWMBO with me, and the fact that the US government recognises me as single even though I’ve been in a civil partnership for more than two years, he said that he understood.
I have no financial ties to the US now except for the money in my Social Security account (which is negligible). Not only that, but I am ineligible for Medicare here in the UK (you have to go to the US to get it) and will probably never see any of that money anyway.
So I need to talk to an attorney quickly and then get over to the Embassy and do it, before they sock me again with another hit.
I think that the visceral reaction of American citizens to renunciation of citizenship comes from everyone having read “The Man Without a Country” in grammar school. Get ’em young and they’ll be yours forever.