why: so the government won’t be able to use your money for whatever the fuck they’re planning for the next 4 years.
as a traveler, none of my money has been funding Israel, for example.
one-step method: you basically fill out one extra tax form called FEIE while you’re doing your taxes, write down the dates you were outside of the country, and then since you aren’t in the country and are not receiving any services from the US, you don’t have to pay income tax up to a certain amount (it’s a little over 125k this year).
Because money keeps getting deposited in your bank account every two weeks and you’re not reporting any income.
Banks hand all of that information over.
Maybe I’m not understanding what you mean, but if someone works and lives abroad for 330 days of the year they’ll likely have a bank account established within that country so that they don’t have to deal with all of their daily financial activities being international transactions.
There is a system whereby foreign banks are obligated to report accounts held by Americans to the US for “anti terrorism” purposes.
And as a us citizen you are also obligated to report all of your foreign accounts in a FBAR filing each year.
Could you give me a name, or at least some link to a government website that describes the system you’re talking about?
https://www.fatf-gafi.org/en/countries/global-network.html
I am sure there are better sources than this, but I am going by what I was told by the bank when I opened an account here in Japan. And maybe it does not only apply to Americans, but I was told at the bank that I had to fill out additional anti-terror related paperwork with US details specifically because of US citizenship.