Germany's Social Democrats are polling ahead of Merkel's bloc for the first time in 15 years

[DFW]

18. I hadn't seen the part about the maximum exclusion

If that is the case, I am royally screwed for 2021. I will have to ask the guy that does my U.S. taxes about that. For that matter, I'm pretty screwed already, actually, so what else is new? The German expert advised me to move back to the States for a year, cash out my Roth IRA while there, and then return to Germany so they can't take close to half my retirement money. At least I wouldn't have to fight to keep what I already paid the taxes on.

In some circles, it seems fashionable to point to us expats as "billionayahs avoiding paying their fayah shayah" while living on a yacht in the harbor of Monte Carlo. That may even be true for a couple dozen people, but the other nine million of us Americans abroad live in a different situation entirely. Six million of us are eligible to vote, and population-wise, we are somewhere near the middle of the fifty states, population-wise. But we have no representation and no lobby in Washington, so it's more convenient to portray us all as owning yachts in Monte Carlo and say, "screw 'em." When Senators and Congressmen come calling for contributions, I always remind them, and they listen, but they always have "more important issues" to contend with.

The day that "American Abroad" have two Senators and a few Congressmen in Washington will be the day of change in what we expats put up with, but that is a day neither of us will live to see.