GAO begins doublespeak already in the title “Economic Benefits of Income Exclusion for U.S. Citizens Working Abroad Are Uncertain ” The entire report –investigating removal of the FEIE “tax expenditure” reads like the script of 1980’s shortwave Radio Moscow—full of “some experts say” and “it can’t be shown” doublespeak. Already on the 1st page “GAO made no recommendations in this report.” . GAO doublespeak already says that “uncertain” in its title means it has “No recommendations.” The table of contents itself is full of doublespeak conclusions.
In order to fully understand what the 74 page General Accounting Office (GAO) report is saying, one really needs to have fluency in doublespeak—-to grasp the real meaning. For those who can read doublespeak, this report might best be read alone in that quiet place after having your morning coffee. Otherwise, I will attempt to provide a translation.
May 20, 2014, The Honorable Jim McDermott, The Honorable Michael Honda. The Honorable Carolyn Maloney, House of Representatives
Apparently the report was commissioned by the well-meaning, yet passively-aggressively naive Abroad Caucus, in response to repeated visits by ACA/AARO.
The immediate cause of the caucus naive error is in commissioning the study to G.A.O. –the General Accounting Office. This band of merry men has a self-interest in making as much form filing work as possible, even though its extra-territorial taxation method might never create any tax revenues.
GAO then went on to interview the normal lackeys “government officials, experts, and stakeholders, including groups representing citizens working abroad and employers”. The list (described in Appendix 1) is stacked with “experts” in creating complicated compliance law in their own interest. The last on the list is American Citizens Abroad who has been profiling itself as “THE Voice of Americans Overseas” . AARO with a similar approach. As we know, there are still no other expat organizations than these two 40-yr-old organization
As the biases are built into the report by its authors and experts, it understandably comes up with a list of options in Appendix 1, Table 7, which range from worse to bad:
-Repeal the FEIE & tax all foreign earned income.
-Reduce the maximum exclusion
-Increase the maximum exclusion
-Restrict eligibility,
-Expand eligibility
-indexed for the cost of living.
– convert the exclusion to a credit
-targeted to employees of selected industries. —(oil & gas, construction, engineering, UN work)
-Uncap the exclusion and exclude all foreign earned income from taxation (but not enact RBT).
-Impose an exit fee on U.S. citizens and U.S. resident aliens living in a foreign country & exclude all foreign income for eligible individuals living overseas (ACA proposal).
Note that well-meaning-but-submissive RBT-ish ACA proposal created some GAO interest–mostly the GAO was excited about an expat proposal for an exit tax upon its own (read closely–GAO empasis is on exit tax)
The title page already clearly states Treasury’s (GAO’s) incoming CBT given-assumption : “Because section 911 reduces income tax liability through special tax provisions, both the Department of the Treasury (Treasury) and the Joint Committee on Taxation (JCT) identify section 911 (FEIE) as a TAX EXPENDITURE. The costs and benefits of this tax expenditure have been the subject of policy and economic discussion. Some have defended the tax expenditure on the grounds that it enables U.S. workers overseas to better compete for jobs with non-U.S. foreign nationals (who typically pay no taxes on overseas earned income) and that it thereby encourages the overseas employment of Americans, who play an important role in promoting exports. However, others have highlighted that some of these claims lack evidence, or are based on outdated assumptions, given changes in the global economy over the past several decades. From a tax policy perspective, some have debated whether or not the tax expenditure provides economic and other benefits to the United States when compared to its costs.”
If the writer (GAO) already comes in with that given-assumption (that FEIE is an expenditure), it would be quite pointless commissioning that writer to produce a 78-page document which questions GAO’s own fast-held principle. Basically, it commissioned a confirmation of GAO’s previous beliefs.
I have translated some of the GAO doublespeak (in italics)
On the title page: “While about half of those GAO interviewed said that employers make overseas hiring decisions based first on the candidates’ qualifications, or that the cost of prospective employees was not a primary consideration, about half also told us the added tax costs of employing U.S. citizens could influence some employment decisions.” (We present this information at the end of a sentence to discount its importance, and early in the document so as to be able to discount its importance and validity with the rest of the document)
…”However, uncapping the exclusion could compound the challenge that IRS has in administering the tax expenditure, given the
misconception that those with excluded income do not have to file and report income to IRS. (GAO doesn’t want people to just experience RBT, it demands the right to continue demanding their tax-form slavery)
…”uncapping the exclusion could create incentives for higher-income professionals to move abroad to deliver their services” (the rats are leaving the ship!) “and to shift some investment income to be paid as earned income.”(gibberish)
…..”It would also reduce federal tax revenue (we need your money), and any perceived unfairness could erode voluntary compliance for domestic taxpayers (Homelanders are jealous over those who’ve left the plantation).
“In terms of good tax policy, there is room for debate regarding how potential revisions to the current tax expenditure may affect choices about where to work and who to hire. (Don’t forget that it is the U.S. government who shall decide where you should live). The current tax expenditure (just slipping it in that FEIE costs us money) may have positive and negative effects on both the efficient allocation of labor resources and on equity. The magnitude of these effects is unknown, making it unclear whether the tax expenditure provides any net economic benefits. (our “experts can’t prove that their FEIE gift is beneficial). These uncertainties also make it difficult to draw definite conclusions about certain policy alternatives. Repealing the tax expenditure (eliminating FEIE) would reduce the tax inducement for U.S. citizens to relocate to lower tax countries (leaving the plantation), but would also make U.S. citizens more costly for any employer to hire than citizens of most other countries, which do not tax foreign earned income. Removing the maximum limit ($99,200 for 2014) for the exclusion would eliminate the tax cost differential with other countries, but would allow high-income individuals to avoid U.S. taxes on foreign earned income (the entire expat policy is driven by the progressive chase after the 1%’ers). Targeted tax relief may be justified for extreme cost of living areas, and the design of any alternative would affect the complexity for taxpayers and the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), as well as the federal tax cost.” (we could try to recognize that some low-tax countries are also high-cost of living, but that would be too much work for us)
Regarding the GAO desire to unfairly tax citizens abroad, which begins on p 67: Is the Tax Expenditure Fair and Equitable?
……….. “In order to apply any of these equity principles, it is necessary to identify individuals who benefit from the exclusion. This identification is complicated by the fact that the individual or business that is legally obligated to pay a tax—or that receives a tax benefit—is not always the one (or, at least, not the only one) that bears the ultimate burden of the tax or receives the ultimate benefit. The ultimate burden or benefit is known as the incidence of the tax policy, and it depends on how various individuals and businesses respond to the policy. For example, in the case of the tax expenditure, even though individual employees claim the exclusion on their own tax returns, the resulting reduction in their total taxes may make them willing to work abroad for a lower pretax income than they would have accepted without the tax expenditure. As a result, the foreign employers may share in at least some of the benefit by being able to pay lower salaries than would otherwise have been needed to hire U.S. citizens.” (This isn’t really hurting you, this is hurting your corporation)
….”In terms of the benefits principle, some of the experts we interviewed noted that U.S. citizens working abroad for the long term receive significantly smaller benefits from U.S. government services than those living in the United States, and that this difference may justify some tax relief for the former. Other experts noted that a large portion of federal revenues pay for services—such as national defense, foreign affairs, income maintenance, and basic research—that produce social or humanitarian benefits that are not directly apportioned to specific individuals. U.S. citizens living abroad likely benefit from some of these services. Many of those citizens also benefitted from years of public investment, for example, in their education, the cost of which is typically recaptured from citizens over their lifetimes. (your American education makes you an indentured servant.) Moreover, some observers note that the choice to retain U.S. citizenship while living abroad provides some insurance with respect to being able to return and live within the United States whenever one wants. They maintain that citizens abroad should be willing to pay some tax for this insurance.” (“Some of the experts” say that homeland research and the wars in Syria Ukraine, Somalia, Yemen, and Libya are for your benefit)
….”Citizens living abroad benefit from services provided by their hostcountries’ governments to which they pay taxes. Given that credits for
foreign income taxes paid reduce the amount of tax that these citizens pay to the U.S federal government, any attempt to quantify discrepancies between federal benefits received and federal taxes paid should account for the foreign tax credit.” (You got the foreign tax credit crumb, now go eat it and be happy)
Appendix 3 analyzes 3 different tax situations — implying that each situation represents 33% of the situation. But, the 0% tax example only represents 2.2% of the expat population. And the 10% example represents less than 2.2% of the expat situation. (we “analyze” by looking at 4% of the population and make it look like it is 2/3rds of the population)
We could go on and on.
What to learn from all this? Recognize that GAO and other lackeys will always respond in its interest and against ours (we already know that) Recognize that the GAO stacks the cards against us. Recognize that other small groups have tried but with little success. More resistance, stronger resistance organization, litigation, flight, and voices louder than the big machine are needed.
I ran across this work of fiction while searching for something else. Hope that it hadn’t been posted by someone else when it was first fabricated. Or not. Sometimes you read a fiction one year, forget it, and need to read it over again later.
@iota
Well that is something to consider. It does, however, bring me back to my old concern of making myself known to them.
The very fact that we even have this to discuss brings my blood to boil.
@JapanT – I know. Me too. I’ve been fortunate, in that my circumstances were so simple that I was able to renounce relatively easily. I do feel for those like yourself for whom getting free of the horrible IRS is not so straightforward.
I repeat, all my comments about how the IRS might or might not be able to use FATCA data, are purely speculative. Just a possibility worth considering, as you say.
What is the weather like in Japan? The Japanese cherry tree outside my window is in full blossom, even though the temperature is far from springlike. I think it must be lovely to see the trees in their native setting.
@NormanDiamond
As long as you feel it necessary to comment on my words, then i must tell you that I don`t find your commentary very reassuring either. Maybe you can tone down what you write as well, and give JapanT more encouragement? Because I think he needs to DO something. He is panicked to the point of inertia. When he begins to act, he will most certainly feel more in control of his life and not so completely at the mercy of “monsters”. Who knows? Perhaps previous inactiveness has created more problems for himself than anything else- but it is time for him to end this constant flow of stress hormones on his body or he is going to get sick, like I did. Coming into action makes one feel so much better. You can gladly help him find his own choices- but chose he must. 🙂
@iota
“I repeat, all my comments about how the IRS might or might not be able to use FATCA data, are purely speculative. Just a possibility worth considering, as you say.”
That’s a big part of the problem, we all know that something must be done but on one knows what nneds to be done. Those who have gone through this know their own situation but very few others are in the exact same situation thus no one can know which path is right for them.
The sakura are starting to bloom. We will do our annual hanami this coming Saturday. Today started out rainy but turned out very nice, mid to upper 50s I think. It has gotten doen to newar freezing a couple of nights very recently, so still chilly.
@polly
Actually, ND’s comments have been helpful. Especially with the enhanced reporting I was instructed to provide. He is the first in more than ten years that actually knows that such a rule existed. I can not tell what paece of mind, the amount if frustration that provided.
I am in my position because I used information from government officials that proved to be incorrect. And not the first time either. Having bedn burnt bad several times in the past and having more at stake than just myself, I need to be double sure of every step I take. It is extremely frustrating to be constantly told to do precisely what led to trouble in the past. Having someone verify in some way what I know, seemingly alone, is a great help.
The problem of where to step remains but at least the stess of being the only one knowing of an exterior cause of my problem has been lifted.
I haven’t been following this thread but when I saw today how many comments there were I thought I’d better take a look. I’m so glad I did! I’m referencing the whole thing in a support document that I am preparing for sending to the UN this summer on the 2nd Anniversary of the filing of our Complaint. We’ve been advised that it can take up to three years for a complaint to reach its first hearing. Hopefully, we’ll have a break-through on one of the other fronts in this fight before the UN has a chance to read it.
The law that is causing such distress must be condemned.
“As long as you feel it necessary to comment on my words, then i must tell you that I don`t find your commentary very reassuring either. Maybe you can tone down what you write as well, and give JapanT more encouragement?”
Indeed, honesty is not always reassuring. I dislike the facts but the facts are the facts. I obeyed orders from the IRS and courts to commit perjury, but I don’t do so willingly.
As for constructive suggestions, a while back I suggested Japan T to see if he can inherit another citizenship from his ancestors, and he found one but he doesn’t speak their language and he’s the one who hesitates to try for it. I mistakenly thought it was Ireland but I don’t think he told us which country it is. I also suggested a way for his children to get the US to deny US citizenship to them, if they find it necessary. That might or might not help if the US subsequently tries to claim that they are US citizens, but it doesn’t hurt (unless they decide that they want to move to the US). In the meantime facts are still facts, sorry that they’re not reassuring.
“I am in my position because I used information from government officials that proved to be incorrect.”
Yup. There’s even a statute saying that the IRS has to cancel penalties in cases where people show that they relied on written instructions from the IRS. Guess why the IRS usually refuses to answer questions in writing. They even hang up the phone if they suspect that they’re not the only party recording a call, even though recordings don’t provide the same protection that written letters do.
P.S. As much as I wish I had recorded calls to the IRS, what I actually did was write notes. Sometimes I asked them to repeat and talk slowly so I could make notes. Sometimes they hung up on me for that.
@ Norman (and JapanT)
I’m not sure if one of us mods has already sent JapanT your email address as you asked in your comment Saturday, so I just did.
Thanks for your offer to get in touch with him — I know, from when I dealt with my own situation, how useful one-on-one communication can be.
Thank you Pacifica. Mr. T and I have communicated.
Just a comment that is tangentially relevant to this discussion: In the mid-1980s, just before we left the USA, we’d heard we had to file US taxes while living abroad, but the information we found on it was vague. No Internet then. My husband phoned the IRS Los Angeles office (in those days one got through in minutes), and asked for clarification as to whether we were required to pay US taxes while working abroad as freelancers (i.e. not employed by a US company). The woman on the phone (whom we still refer to as an “Equal Opportunity Employee”…meaning someone employed by the government to fulfill a racial quota rather than based on competence or intelligence) told us clearly that we were not obliged to file taxes while abroad. An IRS employee on their official information line!!
Two years later we heard the real story from a US embassy official we met at a party. We filed our back taxes for those two years (owing self-employment tax only), and included a letter stating that we did not include payment for late filing fees or interest, on the basis that an IRS official had misinformed us. We even listed the date and place of the call. Six months later we received a demand note and a reply to our letter, stating that the IRS is not responsible for the statements of its employees, even those regarded as official advice.
Don’t ask government officials for information, no matter what country you’re in. They’ll lie to you and then screw you for believing their lies.
“My husband phoned the IRS Los Angeles office (in those days one got through in minutes)”
In the mid 1980’s, right? That’s when the IRS sent me a letter asking how I computed a particular line and saying I should phone the IRS number listed in my local directory. I looked in all sections of my local directory, first the blue pages of government numbers, then white pages for Kitchener-Waterloo, Guelph, etc., and then dialled 411 to ask if the US’s IRS had a local number but the operator couldn’t find one. I wrote back to the address in the IRS’s letter, reminded them that the worksheet for that computation said “Retain for your records, do not send to IRS”, and asked if they wanted me to send this worksheet that said “Do not send to IRS”. They didn’t answer but they did send my refund (they were comparatively honest in those days).
That was before they switched to undiallable 800 numbers.
“The woman on the phone (whom we still refer to as an “Equal Opportunity Employee”…meaning someone employed by the government to fulfill a racial quota rather than based on competence or intelligence)”
Hey, there is no call for such racism. My wife and I visited the IRS in Los Angeles to try to pay the settlement written by the IRS for my illegally honest declarations. The receptionist was an “Equal Opportunity Employee” with no apparent competence or intelligence, and he was a white male. He called the manager for assistance, she did have some competence and intelligence though she lied about an IRS letter that I showed her, and she was a black female. There’s equal opportunity all right, but no need for racism or sexism.
@Barbara, regarding your description of an IRS employee as an “Equal Opportunity Employee”. I have come across incompetent people in government and other sectors over the years, and race and gender have nothing to do with it.
On the other hand, in the Great UnEqual Opportunity race, for white males, being stupid or incompetent hasn’t been a serious impediment – just look at some of the candidates running and winning in US politics throughout history, including for the Presidency https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_W._Bush . At the very least, they get to be VP (ex. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dan_Quayle#cite_note-16 ).
“just look at some of the candidates running and winning in US politics throughout history, including for the Presidency […]. At the very least, they get to be VP […]”
Your examples are about to get Trumped.
@NormanDiamond
Yeah! Another passport is great advice. I have the feeling that inaction is a chronic problem with JapanT. And it might be getting him into all sorts of trouble.
@Barbara
Now that is a totally horrific story. WHO should be responsible if not the IRS for spreading false information? This is the very reason i am so ecstatic to have renounced. i am free of this INSANITY.
@polly
“I have the feeling that inaction is a chronic problem with JapanT. And it might be getting him into all sorts of trouble.”
Now where do you get that from? In the three years I have known of this, I have gathered an extensive library on this issue, read and read and read, searched for and gathered documents, wrote and submitted a 14 page submission to the Senate subcommittee on taxation in the middle of grading final exams for half a dozen college courses and writing syllabi for others.
Last year was the first year I have ever missed deadlines for submitting grades, syllabi, lesson plans, etc and I am now behind in several at this moment. I can not just blow off my commitments chasing after every suggestion I receive, especially as so many go against my own personal experience, in particular what the IRS required me to report.
Shall I stop looking for more hours to work on Japanese or another citizenship? If I do so, when my first quarter only course finishes at one of my colleges my child gets booted out of daycare and I must quit all my jobs to look after them. Japan is not likely to give an unemployed house husband citizenship, not to mention what that would do to my child’s future. I am full of activity, almost all of which is directed at keeping my sinking ship afloat a little longer while the FATCA and FBAR Storm approaches. I’m swamped even without FATCA and FBAR to worry about.
Apologies for coming across as racist. But my experience with US government offices in the 1980s was that the front line staff were almost entirely minorities. This is not to imply that non-white people are less capable. Rather, that when employing less capable people overall, who were unqualified for private sector jobs–as the government seems to for these positions–they will favor less capable minority workers over less capable whites, or at least that’s who they put into the front line posts. Those with any intelligence or competency never met the public. Politically correct or not to point out such things, that is how it was then. No idea about nowadays.
In any case, I don’t entirely blame the woman who misinformed us about expat taxes. She obviously was poorly trained by her managers. But she also didn’t seem to have a clue about any question that was non-routine, and didn’t have the initiative to ask a superior for an answer. She cost us money and stress. Not nearly what Norman Diamond endured, but still a major pain.
@JapanT
Then maybe you need to organise better or prioritize better- because there is something totally overwhelming about your life in total- seemingly even before FATCA, and it is like you are always living on the edge. It almost feels like ADHD sometimes? But I see you will be communicating with ND and maybe he can help you with what to do first. But 3 years of gathering material and writing to a senator doesn’t seem to be doing anything which produces any worthwhile result for yourself- and this is what you need. So it is like you are expending all of this energy for nothing.
But I`ll leave you with this- once I was on an online dating site and came into contact with a guy who seemed really nice and highly educated. So we wrote a bit, and then we decided to do the first ever telephone call. I got myself a glass of wine and with my heart palpitating, dialled his number at the designated time. He actually told me all about his problems within one hour. And when I suggested a solution for any of them- he told me how that this would never work. Like he had a condo in a too loud area. I told him why not sell it and move somewhere else? NO! That was impossible to do. His daughter was bipolar and a handful. Why not try therapy or medication? NO! This was also impossible to do. It just went on and on. There were no solutions for any of his problems. I knew I could not live like this and I said good bye. I am a solution-oriented person. And when I retired I worked towards making my own life more and more simple. Then FATCA came along and roughed things up a lot. But the act of getting things done- like renouncing for example- already made things more simple- and with each step I found relief- even if it was painful to pay a nation which I had not lived in for over 50 years. A therapist once told me “You cannot skirt around it. You can`t go around the left or the right of it- you have to go through the middle of it all.” And he was right. In order to solve my problems- I had to face them head on.
Good luck on your journey JapanT! I am rooting for ya!
@Polly – “…once I was on an online dating site and came into contact with a guy who seemed really nice and highly educated. So we wrote a bit, and then we decided to do the first ever telephone call. I got myself a glass of wine and with my heart palpitating, dialled his number at the designated time. He actually told me all about his problems within one hour. And when I suggested a solution for any of them- he told me how that this would never work. Like he had a condo in a too loud area. I told him why not sell it and move somewhere else? NO! That was impossible to do. His daughter was bipolar and a handful. Why not try therapy or medication? NO! This was also impossible to do. It just went on and on. There were no solutions for any of his problems. I knew I could not live like this and I said good bye. I am a solution-oriented person.”
Regarding the troubled boyfriend – I also am a solution-oriented person, and like you, when someone tells me their problems I often tend to assume they’re asking me to find a solution. Over the years, I’ve got better at remembering that very often the other person is not asking me to solve their problems, they just want to talk about the difficulties to someone, and feel that that person listens and understands and empathises.
My daughter taught me this. She actually started prefacing what she said to me about her worries with the phrase “I’m not asking for a solution…” 🙂
Of course, in a forum like this one, people are indeed seeking solutions. Boyfriends or daughters – not so much. 🙂
@iota
Yeah- I know 🙂
But there is doing and then there is doing. Dispencing a lot of energy on something which makes no difference is not a good thing and only exhausts us.
@Polly – it sounds like the phone call was a successful filter – you two probably weren’t meant for each other. 🙂
@Polly
Thank you rooting for me, and I mean that.
But ADHD? Not at all. If I could boil it down it is probably due to trying to serve multiple masters. Masters that are far from ideal managers. I currently have five employers, I used to have 9. While some are better than others, they all act as if, just because I work only X number of hours for them, that I must have 168-X hours free each week to do extra work for them, free of charge.
Now that we have these stupid computers everywhere, receiving an email at 11:30 pm Friday night with a huge task that must be done by Monday morning is not at all uncommon. Not only does that catch me flat footed with a new, almost impossible deadline out of the blue but the work I had planned to do over the weekend now gets pushed back until the following week and thus everything else.
If you are not familiar with the movie “Midway”, it depicts the very situation my Japanese employers put me in. The Admiral can’t make up his mind which target his task force should hit and thus can not decide whether to arm his planes with torpedoes or bombs. So they load one, torpedoes let’s say. Then unloads those and loads with bombs, then torpedoes….then bombs. Those sailors ain’t inactive, they’re turnin’ and burnin’ like nobody’s business. While making the last change of their lives, US dive bombers catch the whole carrier task force with their pants down, flight decks crammed full of fully fueled and mostly loaded planes. Carrier after carrier up like a match stick. FOOM. FOOM. FOOM
I work for the reincarnated spirits of those in command that day. The lesson they learned from that was not to be decisive, rather to train their crews more rigorously so that they could have got the change completed before the enemies plans appeared.
Scheduling is a nightmare that few can appreciate. At my main university, the required and elective classes do not always start nor finish in the same week and despite repeated requests for the these dates I often do not know until the week my classes start and often find out walking into the classroom that I am to give the exam in just a few moments when the schedule says it isn’t until a couple of weeks later. Another extreme case was finding out 4 hours before class time that classes start that day despite having requested the date repeatedly for three months prior.
Each employer demands that I give them my availability for the next cycle, semester, whatever three or four months in advance yet will not let me know my schedule until at best one month before classes start and at worst with only 4 hours notice.
School A: “We haven’t got a syllabus from you yet and classes start next month! They were due last week!”
Me: “Well then, if you’ll tell what classes I have, when they are and which book I have to use I’ll get right on it.”
School A: “Nobody contacted you about the classes!, we’re so sorry, we’ll get that to you right away”.
Three days later they email the info and the new due date leaving me with 18 hours to complete them. Another night of working all through the night.
Those employers to whom I have voiced my concerns over their scheduling, rather the general lack there of, have found that they no longer require my services.
One school’s interpretations of changes in Ministry of Education directives forced me to rewrite my syllabus six times in one month. They told me that the rules changed but they would not tell me what the new rules were. Hey! I actually may be much better prepared to deal with the IRS than I thought after all!
If you offer a solution and someone tells you it will not work, it maybe as you interpret it. Or it could be that that someone has already tried it and it didn’t work out for them. It could also be that the environment within which they dwell differs greatly from the suggester’s experience. In my case, I think I have given you very good reasons why at least some of the solutions offered here can not work for me.
Have you read the link I gave for the USC who naturalized as a JN but lost his Japanese Nationality because he did not renounce USN within the two year limit? As difficult as it will be for me gain JN, if so much remains for me to do in order to renounce free and clear that I can not complete it within two years, then Japan kicks me out.
I guess I’d better explain that, as it is not clearly stated. If I become a JN, my PR visa is voided as I would then be a JN and JNs do not need a visa to reside in Japan. If I can not cleanly break away and lose my JN, then I would not have a visa to stay.
A point that I may be missing is if the renunciation only, without the CLN would fulfill this requirement. I am also unsure…well of a lot of things. I’ll ask on the appropriate thread.
Additionally you really do not know the work involved to get JN nationality. Even while in college over here as an exchange student using Japanese almost exclusively daily for an entire year I did have enough skill with it to pass the language requirement. And I haven’t studied it in over ten years. Instead I’m studying up on forensics, business, management, trauma medicine and what not in English to help many of my various students get published in various journals, while I’m dealing with all the nonsense above. And now, FATCA and FBAR.
ADHD?
“She went down to curse the cruel ocean for the murderous loss of her man”
“What makes a man sail upon the wild ocean or toil a mile underground?”
“When poverty’s your master and hunger’s no stranger
you take whatever work can be found”
I am glad you have been so blessed as to not have had to put up with such rotten management for such rotten pay while trying to pay off huge debts. Not all of us are so blessed and must make the best of the situation we are in as we try to claw our way out. But to be labeled as having ADHD or not being organize or active enough or whatever is off the mark.
Not looking for sympathy either. Understanding would be nice, however.
@JapanT
Sounds like you do have too many masters! I have also heard that the japanese dont like “foreigners” too much and that if given the choice, they will not employ a gaijin? So this makes it even harder?
For me renunciation was a no brainer because I was european descent anyway. And Europeans are almost like Americans in many ways. I was not leaving my race nor even a lot of customs. I love french fries and hamburgers and don`t like sushi. There is so much I love about my new country so it makes it so much less complicated. I don`t think I could have done it so easily if it were the japanese nationality I would have taken on. I might even feel unwanted by the very people I wanted to be a part of. But I also dont know what it must feel like to have a child and a wife and want to stay with them no matter what. I am not in your shoes.
I used to have a friend who worked at the same hospital in Germany as I did and he was always overwhelmed with work. I found out that he was the “go to” guy. American like me, he was always confronted with translations of research papers and the like for his bosses – that is plural because as a medical resident almost everyone is above you in the chain. He was also a pushover and could never say no. He was a real sweetheart – but somehow he didn’t value himself and his “worth” enough. I dont think he would have lost his job for not letting himself be used like that because his bosses could understand the need for some respite from work as well. But he worked until midnight so often besides weekends and night duty- so that all of his spare time was in the service of others. And he still is like this even today in America. His “partners” have even cheated him out of money which I find a real shame. One could say he is too good – but it gets excruciating when you are fond of a friend and see how he is repeatedly being used by others. It is like a state of mind that I could never talk him out of with the old “get tougher” kind of pep talks.
But the situation might be very different in Japan. Like I say- Japanese mentality is too foreign for me.
Isn’t there a saying that goes something like this: God never gives us more than we can handle? I have said that to myself in very hard times. But I fought really hard learning to say no myself where I could.
@iota
YEAH LOLOLOL! It ended with a kind of “I`ll call you dont call me” thing. I didn’t really want somebody like that in my life. I felt misused as his wailing wall. Imagine you just meet somebody and he unloads on you like that?
If you are a problem solver – you want a like minded person. I just have this “get things done” managerial mentality. I ran my ward like a tight ship too.