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Not really, or not always. An example: The IRS taxes every US citizen on all income, regardless of where they live. They didn't go setup tax treaties with every country. If I'm a US citizen living in North Korea, I still have to file US taxes every year, despite the 2 countries essentially hating on each other for decades.



Sure, but that's devoid of the international enforcement mentioned. If your assets are in North Korea or a Swiss bank, then they can't force you to pay it. If your assets are in US accounts, then they could easily do so. I imagine there are other countries that we do have treaties with (or even if the bank has branches/business in the US so that the government doesn't make their life difficult) that would cooperate in freezing your international assets held in those countries too.


I agree, enforcement matters. My opinion: In the last 50+ years, it's been a very bad bet to be against the USA. They generally get whatever they want.

If that's right or not, is certainly debatable.


The way things are going these days, I would never move to a place that doesn’t have a current agreement with the United States and assume it’d stay that way.




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