Figuring out your taxes and planning my most effective tax avoidance schemes are two entirely different things. It’s not much of a burden for the average person to figure out their non-residence taxes. I get taxed in twenty different jurisdictions – not complicated at all. Trying to figure out whether it’d be a slightly lower tax burden to shift French stocks to British bonds may be a pain, but then that’s my problem, isn’t it?

And that whole non-dom thing does seem to have quietly slipped off the radar since it was first broached and all those invaluable rich people threatened to leave if they actually had to pay any tax. To which I say, fine, go; it means Dragon’s Den and The Apprentice will be cancelled in short order, which can only be a good thing.

Require the taxes from Americans, but have a US tax credit for taxes paid to the Brazilian gov’t, one-to-one. If the other country is charging reasonable or high taxes, you don’t get double-taxed, but if the other country is a tax dodge it doesn’t get you out of paying in the US.

(This is basically the rule North Carolina has for “use tax”, that is, sales tax on out-of-state purchases. You get a 1-1 credit for sales tax paid in another state, so you legally only owe the full tax if you purchased without paying ANY tax.)

Have you any idea what a logistical nightmare this is for Americans living abroad, even if – after the allowances and double taxation treatment – they end up being liable for little tax?

Gary, are you sure? I was under the impression that exemption had recently been revoked.

It’s not quite so clear cut. Americans can exclude roughly the first $100K of their income from being taxable. There’s a lot of careful accounting that occurs amongst US nationals abroad to avoid paying anything at all to the IRS.