Any American working overseas is more than familiar with the unfolding drama facing American expatriates.

To summarize, America is the only developed country to tax its residents when they work overseas (the other one is Eritrea). For example, even though I work entirely in China, and pay taxes here, I must also pay taxes on my income in America.

This has basically been ok, because Americans are allowed to declare an exemption of around $90,000. Also, you can only return to America for 35 days a year, even if you're not working, or the exemptions goes away. (There's another way to file taxes by declaring you're a resident of another country, but the standards are that there are no standards–the IRS simply decides arbitrarily if you are or aren't a resident and you could be on the hook for a big tax bill, so it's not recommended.)





https://www.linkedin.com/today/post/article/20140903041231-14545686-is-america-trying-to-stop-americans-from-working-abroad