Pardon me for jumping in...but a year ago I won a case in tax court brought aainst me by the IRA for not paying taxes on income earned while living overseas...apart from the verdict, the whole thing was a complete farce! My advice is to research the subject in detail before leaving the country and file IRS returns faithfully every year regardless of where you live even if you owe no tax (I owed no tax so filed no returns, penalty for not filing = % of tax owed, so no penalty for not filing, but only IF the IRS agrees you don't owe). Yes, there has been talk in the Clinton administration of dropping the overseas earning provision. You might want to email either Sen. Byron Dorgan or Sen. Kent Conrad of N.D. since both these guys were State Tax Commssioners before going to Washington and seem to be clued in on federal tax issues. The report I read in the Orlando Sentinel suggested that Clinton felt the exclusion was a money loser desined to help US corporations get employees to work overseas. However, it seems to me that it is also part of the complex web of international tax treaties designed to prevent double taxation. If you are a US citizen earning in a country that has an income tax they are likely going to expect you to pay tax, just as we tax foreign nationals living here. My impression is that many IRS staff lack in-depth knowledge of this very complex area (for example, I paid tax on my overseas income to the government of the country in which I was living when I earned it and that country has a tax treaty with the US...after about 6 very scary phone calls the agent assigned to the case agreed that I did not owe income tax...but then he tried to hit me up for thousands fo dollars in self-employed soc sec contribution -- when I told him that was also covered under a reciprocal treaty it was complete news to him...he asked me, and I wish I had taped the call, to send him the IRS document in which I had read this!) The result is often months of very stressful waiting, staring huge penalties in the face, while they learn up on the subject and say "I guess you're right, you don't owe that $60,000 in unpaid tax and penalties we asked the judge to award us." I still have a state tax lien triggered by this bogus action against me lying around on one of my credit reports. Respectfully...Stephen ps The recent US legislation denying soc sec benefits to legal aliens seems to be a breach of the referred to above. pps The relation to cypto is :-)?