Expatriation and taxes are complex issues with many facets, and I feel the author of the article is naively or deceitfully ignoring them to only focus on the unrealistic solution that would benefit him. First, let's get the taxation-without-representation trope out of the way: you can always vote by absentee ballot in federal elections in your place of last residence in the US [1]. I think it reflects rather poorly on someone if they don't even make that effort--and then complain about it.
As for actually paying taxes, that's fairly well covered in the comments: you don't unless you're making big bucks. The issue seems to be paying an accountant to do the paperwork. Yes, it is slightly more paperwork for an expatriate, but plenty of people in the US pay an accountant to do their taxes too (itemizations, deductions, capital gains, and lots of fancy accounting to reduce taxes). Accountants seem to be about $500, so the $5K figure is for the full service expat (the upper tier whose company pays for everything--or used to), or for those who have 2 businesses like the author. Heck, taxes for business owners in the US are probably $5K as well. For regular employees, it is also possible to download the forms online and file your taxes yourself. That's what I did when I lived abroad as a student and employee.
The new reporting by foreign banks for US citizens seems to be an actual issue. Making foreign banks deal with US bureaucracy sounds like a nightmare, and if they do refuse expat American customers, that might be a problem in day-to-day living. That probably does need some real-world solution, such as raising the limit to 20K for a basic checking account.
The complexity of the US tax forms comes from the innumerable deductions and allowances that are meant to encourage some form of economic behavior (e.g. buy solar panels or invest in local businesses). It's not an ideal system, but it does provide a lot of flexibility and it's one way for the gov't to set economic policy in a county that frowns on more direct gov't involvement.
Finally, on the moral side of the issue, I don't see any problem with a country keeping tabs on the wealth of its citizens who are free to come and go. It's the tyranny of the IRS: rich and poor alike must file. Nobody argues they shouldn't pay taxes when they are in the US, but in order to do that properly, you can't turn a blind eye to what happens to their money when they happen to be out of the country. As other commenters have said, having US citizenship is an insurance of some sorts, and if/when you move back, the irs wants to know where you stashed all your foreign earnings.
I think the US is unique in this regard: lots of wealth, lots of freedoms including travel, lots of tax deductions, and a ruthless IRS that is known to go after the rich and the poor alike. Other countries would probably like to have the power to enforce their tax regimes abroad, but can't.
As for actually paying taxes, that's fairly well covered in the comments: you don't unless you're making big bucks. The issue seems to be paying an accountant to do the paperwork. Yes, it is slightly more paperwork for an expatriate, but plenty of people in the US pay an accountant to do their taxes too (itemizations, deductions, capital gains, and lots of fancy accounting to reduce taxes). Accountants seem to be about $500, so the $5K figure is for the full service expat (the upper tier whose company pays for everything--or used to), or for those who have 2 businesses like the author. Heck, taxes for business owners in the US are probably $5K as well. For regular employees, it is also possible to download the forms online and file your taxes yourself. That's what I did when I lived abroad as a student and employee.
The new reporting by foreign banks for US citizens seems to be an actual issue. Making foreign banks deal with US bureaucracy sounds like a nightmare, and if they do refuse expat American customers, that might be a problem in day-to-day living. That probably does need some real-world solution, such as raising the limit to 20K for a basic checking account.
The complexity of the US tax forms comes from the innumerable deductions and allowances that are meant to encourage some form of economic behavior (e.g. buy solar panels or invest in local businesses). It's not an ideal system, but it does provide a lot of flexibility and it's one way for the gov't to set economic policy in a county that frowns on more direct gov't involvement.
Finally, on the moral side of the issue, I don't see any problem with a country keeping tabs on the wealth of its citizens who are free to come and go. It's the tyranny of the IRS: rich and poor alike must file. Nobody argues they shouldn't pay taxes when they are in the US, but in order to do that properly, you can't turn a blind eye to what happens to their money when they happen to be out of the country. As other commenters have said, having US citizenship is an insurance of some sorts, and if/when you move back, the irs wants to know where you stashed all your foreign earnings.
I think the US is unique in this regard: lots of wealth, lots of freedoms including travel, lots of tax deductions, and a ruthless IRS that is known to go after the rich and the poor alike. Other countries would probably like to have the power to enforce their tax regimes abroad, but can't.
[1] http://www.howtogermany.com/pages/voting.html