By Dako Most people picture giving up a green card as part of the move. Pack the house, fly to Japan, mail the card back once the dust settles. The immigration side is fine with that story. The tax side…
By Dako The number that runs the US exit tax is $2 million. Net worth, everything you own, counted on the day you give up your green card or your passport. It has never been adjusted for inflation. A household…
By Dako Somebody in a forum thread will tell you Japan has an exit tax. Somebody else will tell you the US has one. Both are right. If you’re a household like ours, one American passport, one green card, a…
By Dako For a long time I filed the green card question under “not urgent.” We haven’t decided whether we’re moving to Japan, splitting the year, or staying put. So the card just sits there, doing its job, waiting for…
By Dako The scariest version of the story goes like this: you give up your green card, and the IRS takes half of everything on your way out. I’ve now spent enough evenings inside section 877A of the tax code…
If you hold a green card and think you might leave the US someday, there’s a phrase you need to meet long before any moving trucks show up: covered expatriate. The covered expatriate rules decide whether giving up a green…