PT. 2 #albania has a VERY low cost of living. Is new entrepreneur #digitalnomad friendly, visa free for a year, lovely beaches, cheap coffee. And would cost me HALF to just go there versus Minnesota. So...thoughts? #europe
@praetor Money angle worth checking first: the 330-day thing is the US Foreign Earned Income Exclusion test (330 full days abroad in a 12-month window), not a rule to come back. You still file US returns, and self-employment tax (~15.3%) generally still applies even when FEIE covers income tax. Albania usually treats you as tax resident after 183 days, so a call with a cross-border accountant first is cheap insurance. And budget for health insurance, it's the cost people forget.
@smartbudgetsheets Thanks. I wasn't quite understanding the FEIE thing
@praetor Short version: the FEIE (Form 2555) lets a US citizen living abroad exclude foreign earned income from US *income* tax, up to a yearly cap (roughly $130k, indexed each year). To qualify you need a foreign tax home plus either 330 full days outside the US in any 12-month window, or bona fide residence abroad. It does not cover self-employment tax (~15.3%), and you still file a US return every year.
@smartbudgetsheets I have a bean counter who does stuff at the end of the year. Old boy back home I've known for aeons. And my LLC is in Wyoming where he is (and where I'm from). When it comes to the taxes and stuff, I let Joe handle it. He does it, I send a check. That's just kinda how we've always worked. So I don't delve into it too deeply.
@praetor That's a good setup; a long-time accountant who knows your situation is worth a lot. The one thing worth doing on your side: if Joe ever claims the exclusion for you, keep a simple log of the days you're in and out of the US each year. It's easy now and painful to rebuild from old passport stamps later.
@praetor If you can handle the bad roads and the garbage laying around in the landscape it‘s a beautiful country!
@NerdNomaden You need to come to #Texas bro. I'm serious. It's filthy. Wyoming, where I'm from, there are garbage cans EVERYWHERE and you will get nailed $160 for EVERY piece of garbage you throw down, up to $1000 worth of garbage....and then you go to jail. And the cop will SCREAM at you until you pick up every piece of trash to draw attention to you for doing it. It's jus not done. I have like 6 Icelandic glacier bottles in my bag because there are zero garbage cans here.