Citizenship’s Hidden Cost: Financial Planning as an American in Norway

"This insane tax system has the unintended effect of making every single American abroad cautionary tales rather than ambassadors of our home country."

—Adam from Maryland, Tennessee, and Norway

Dear Congress,

I am an American citizen who was raised in Maryland and now live in Norway after moving from Tennessee.

My first introduction to the financial planning nightmare of an American abroad was when I moved to Canada in January 2020. There, I discovered basic financial planning tools for education, retirement, or even something as simple as saving for a home were effectively unusable to Americans due to the dual-tax nature of being a citizen of the United States. 

I now live in Norway, where being an American citizen bars me from using even the most basic savings or investment tools. To make matters worse, American retirement accounts are not treated as tax-deferred by Norway since the United States has not updated its tax treaty with the Scandinavian nation in over half a century.

I work with several Americans here in Norway. We would love to recommend to our Norwegian friends and colleagues that the United States is a wonderful place to live and work, but they know all too well the insanity we go through yearly trying our hardest to be in tax and reporting compliance with the United States, and the utter shackling that American citizenship has had on our lives. To them, our system appears completely illogical and arguably insane, since it both raises little to no revenue from the vast majority of filers, while costing the IRS far more to try to track and manage. 

This insane tax system has had the unintended effect of making every single American abroad cautionary tales rather than ambassadors of our home country. It permanently puts us on the financial back foot compared to our contemporaries.

This problem has highlighted the United States as a country whose tax system is not based on merit or fairness, but one that is so unwieldy, both for its citizens and itself, that the net effect is to raise no revenue from the vast majority of filers while simultaneously ruining their ability to be competitive internationally, to save for retirement, to live their lives.

Please end the double taxation of Americans abroad, freeing us from this punitive system and allowing us to thrive without forsaking our roots.

Sincerely,

Adam from Maryland, Tennessee, and Norway