American logic
 

ROTW except for we use a mixture of metric and imperial here in the uk.

I'm trying to start a fight here between USA and Europe and this is what you give me GFY? Ignoring me?

Some help would be appreciated.

Raised in the USA really fucked my mind up for living outside of the USA later in life. I have no fucking idea why we don't get in line with everyone else. Life would be so much easier.

I often wonder if they don't do that just to try to keep Americans home so they can be good worker bees and pay their taxes that help fuel the USA's quest for empire, or to pay the interest on the debt the USA owes, whichever you want to believe.

Americans are generally not worldly people, be it in actual world experience, world history, or just basic understand of what is happening elsewhere. Every where I go, no matter how desolate or off the beaten path, I'll usually run into at least one German, Australian, or Israeli. Almost never run into Americans unless it's in the usual "safe" tourist haunts.

I read a stat recently that said only 38% of Americans have a passport. That is incredible. Yet any American you ask will claim the USA is the best country in the world. Maybe that is true, maybe it's not. But how could they possibly know if they have nothing to compare it to? And probably less than the 38% of passport holders have ever used their passport and traveled abroad. Boggles the mind.

I'm American, and I'll vote +1 for the metric system

Sorry Emil, still nobody fighting you back yet LOL

I never did get the month/day/year thing.

Very odd, to say the least...

Don't US citizens have to pay their taxes no matter where they live?

That is very, very odd.

I get it FWIW... Its just a shorthand in the way they speak, in 'American English'...

An abbreviation if you like...

We would say "On The 16th Of April..." They say 'On April 16th...' Saving the need to say 'on' and 'the'...

Hence the shorthand style of the date (MM/DD/YY) being the same way around...

Yep. Just like a lot of other countries.

But when living abroad you get to earn more before paying and still get standard write offs.

Un like some other countries where you pay and its a set amount and fuck you if you live else where and its harder to pay on time etc.

Yea, well, at least we don't wear wooden shoes!

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It depends on how much money you make and your status as either a resident in another country or how many physical days you have been outside of the USA, which is a minimum of 330 days of being abroad.

We have a thing called the foreign earned income exclusion, which basically gives Americans working and living abroad a tax break of $95,100 (for 2012). So if you make that or less, you don't pay taxes, but you still have to file. If you make more than that, you only pay on whatever income goes over that amount. It's also possible to deduct a housing expenses overseas if you meet certain criteria, which is in addition to the foreign earned income exclusion.

That amount rises a little every year. For example 2011 is $92,900, 2010 was $91,500, and so on.

However, there are a lot of little catches that could still have you paying State tax depending on your situation or self-employment tax, so it really depends on each persons situation.

So they give us a big break if we meet their criteria, and in some cases expats pay zero taxes. Either way, we pay significantly less.

Isn't that the Dutch? :1orglaugh

Don't ruin a good point by getting geographically specific.

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American logic :1orglaugh:1orglaugh :winkwink: