"These posts are always..."

show me.

I haven't seen any other posts about the FEIE(except for mine earlier this year).

"...it implies you were completely happy..."

not at all, in fact, the post body specifically contradicts your implication.

your "implication" is drawn entirely from your own flawed assumptions and unnecessary ignorance.

"..now you want to talk about tax avoidance?"

I've been talking about the feie for years, so in the future you might want to check yourself since you just wrecked yourself.

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.

“are you aware that…right facing arrow”

yup.

I’ll make a note of your difficulties though:

"confused by...quotation marks."

"Finds...own quotations...difficult to read…"

okay, got it.

“I’m not talking about all possible fantastic timelines”

you literally said “best-case scenario”

A few American 80-year-olds dying oh heart attacks is fairly realistic.

“Trump came out of left field…”

I can’t tell if you’re trying to paraphrase what I said or...I don’t see the point of this section at all. You’re agreeing with my point that sometimes things that seem inevitable are not inevitable.

“Illuminate me. Please. Instead of just saying I don’t, explain to me what I don’t understand that makes anything I’ve said not a real, valid concern.”

Sure.

A conservative majority is a problem, but does not create the inevitabilities you are worried about. Yes, things will likely get much worse for most people because Trump was elected, but importantly:

Is everything over and nobody can ever change anything again as you claim?

No, of course not, because inevitabilities are unfeasible in the real world.

You’re wallowing in a moment.

Time to move on.

“Laws only work if they are enforced.”

As they worked in extracting about a hundred million from Trump and convicting him 34 times.

“Can you provide proof to me that he has already paid E. Jean Carroll $100 million?”

He’s posted bond(paid the money) for those cases specifically(consequences of the legal system).

Here’s all the other major legal consequences to his ongoing cases. As mentioned, many are cases he is definitively unlikely to succeed in claiming as “presidential duties” as they happened out of office or are state cases not liable to federal oversight.

https://edition.cnn.com/2024/11/06/politics/what-happens-to-trump-criminal-cases/index.html

He’s spending time and money defending himself and so far, losing those cases. Those are consequences.

These cases are ongoing. You’re complaining about mights and maybes rather than the consequences he’s already faced that specifically disprove your “no consequences” theory.

“He pay that $100 mil yet?”

Yes, he did.

When you pay bond, you provide the money that is held in escrow until the completion of the appeals process.

“I’m not sure how much I can help you.”

No worries, I made that estimate a few comments back.

“HE WON.”

He won before. Four years later he lost, his policies were reversed and remarkably progressive legislation was passed.

“You haven’t proven me wrong on a single thing.”

a few things I have proved you wrong about:

1. You believe Trump has faced no consequences. Trump is a convicted felon, legal sex offender, required to show up in court for years and spend his time and money and being sentenced(so far) to two payments to Carroll totaling 91 million bucks.

So you were wrong about that.

2. You were wrong about best-case scenarios

3.wrong about the “king” thing

4. wrong about the inevitability of Trump since he lost the 2020 election.

They’re are more, but...yea I did prove you wrong. A bunch.

“Do you honestly think that all conservative policy and efforts stop when Trump dies?”

No, this is counterintuitive to everything I’ve been teaching you about how government works.

I'll listen to your theory, though.

“You’re being a contrarian”

I’m correcting your inaccuracies. You are taking it personally, but these are facts and you have the facts wrong.

If you were speaking accurately or could back up your defeatist anxieties with facts, you would face fewer corrective statements.

“...how to properly use this site’s functions”

Quotations being inside quotation marks is confusing for you. Already noted that one above.

“I have nothing to learn from you.”

Enjoy those cave shadows.

"considering you deduct the taxes you locally pay off the top first"

i understood local taxation to be inclusive to the FEIE, can i see your source?

"so, ive lived outside of the US for over 15 years"

sounds very likely. must be why you're unaware of the tax form designation and function you've filled out "15" times.

"You don't only fill out the 2555."

to qualify for the FEIE, you do.

"I know a bunch of americans here and never once have I heard of the 2555 called a "FEIE Form""

oh really, all of your friends abroad that you don't call expats like literally every other long-term traveler?

and they're also very familiar with form 2555 but exclusively refer to it by the awkward moniker "form 2555"?

"come on gang, let's go to the 20 U.S. Code Chapter 16"

" you mean the library?"

" right, but I very naturally refer to the library by its legal code designation: 20 U.S. Code Chapter 16"

pffhaha, come on!

"pointed out that you absolutely do pay tax"

arguing against a point nobody made, for unknown reasons.

"just not to the US, you pay to the government in the country where you're living."

1. this is largely incorrect, expats usually don't have to file taxes in the countries they travel in because of #2

2. it sounds like you're trying to talk about permanent residency abroad, which is a. rare and unnecessary for most travelers b. a different topic c. one of the only situations in which you would pay separate federal taxes abroad and d. not some sort of prerequisite to using the FEIE.

"You said "you don't pay tax on the first approx 125k""

this quote is incorrect, I assume as a misdirect for the topic changes.

"its not tax free, its just to the government of Australia or wherever you live instead of the US."

this is incorrect as well, your first $125k of income is tax-free, and most people are not required to file federal income taxes in the countries they are traveling in.

sounds like you're trying really hard to switch topics from travel tax tips to permanent immigration tax law, but you aren't familiar enough with either term to pull it off.

quick note: the "domicile" tax you keep talking about paying to the foreign government isn't some separate expense you file an extra tax form for while abroad, you just rent a place and the tax goes to the government in that price up front.

If you make over 125k, you can use the housing exemption(as people actually call it) to reduce your tax burden, but as with most of your misdirects, that's very rarely applicable.

you don't have to fill out an extra form for each place you rent a condo in.

"I also mentioned that people will pay tax on earned income under that 125k if youre in the states over 35 days, but that its prorated"

this is incorrect afaik, but maybe I dont understand the context of your nonspecific terms.

I think I know what you're misunderstanding with the prorated feie(qualified days calculated outside of the calendar year in addition to the physical presence test I'm talking about here) but either way, you still have to be outside of the country 330 days to qualify for the FEIE.

if you point me to the source you're paraphrasing, I'll check for you.

especially this prorared calculation, which I have never heard of:

"(if you were one day over, or 329 if you were over by two days, etc)"

I'm very curious to learn where you got that from.

"just trying to expand and clarify on your post."

that didn't work, you either just repeated what I said in different words(to me!) or muddied the waters with incorrect information.

No worries.

"apparently its your area of complete expertise"

I appreciate it, but I'll take "storied familiarity"

If you asked questions instead of making assumptions, you could have saved us all time and I could explain all those buzzwords you found properly the first time.

"just googling shit to bask in the glory of your genius".

again, thank you, and again you can just ask questions instead of frantically searching the internet for counterpoints that don't exist or correlations that are irrelevant to the post.

"stay cool"

ƪ⁠(⁠˘⁠⌣⁠˘⁠)⁠ʃ

prefer, yes, but especially for the walking around job they'll take anybody tall.

their prejudices are real flexible in that regard.

"However, since you don't pay taxes on that money, it can impact which kinds of retirement accounts you can use, if any"

The math works out in your favor.

wouldn't you rather have that money earning interest now rather than receiving a few hundred later on when you probably don't need it as much?

"Also, trying to invest as a US citizen outside the US can suck because of all the agreements with US banks."

it can suck, and it can also be awesome.

I see you're speaking specifically to Japanese banking standards, which I would agree are one of the more difficult countries for a US citizen to interface with.

but that's a great thing about there being about 200 countries.

Bank somewhere else if you want to.

try Hong Kong or China or Thailand or Portugal or Sweden or you know, a lot of countries.

you don't have to live in the country you bank in.

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.

it's pretty great.

and it's just about as easy as you have described.

If you have any questions, I am happy to answer.

I've been doing this a long time and I've helped other people start traveling.

do you mean "another option to avoid paying taxes is renouncing your citizenship?"

in which case, yeah, extreme and still an option.

but the FEIE is way simpler and you can keep the few perks US citizenship still affords its rabble.

yeah it is totally banana stacks, and nobody tells anybody else how to get around that, of course.

since nobody knows the sacred knowledge anyway.

some tax guy, not my tax guy, just a random guy who worked in taxes, offhandedly mentioned it to me like it was no big deal one day and I was like whaaaat?

most of the expats I know just don't pay taxes because they're dumb, or they're paying taxes that they don't need to because nobody told them about the FEIE.

oh right. goodbye, biden's billionaire tax.