Peter Trei wrote:

Expatriate US citizens have to pay income tax on foreign earned income to the US...If you don't pay up, they might not be able to extradite you if you're now a foreigner, but they'll go after your assets in the US, or arrest you if you set foot on US soil.

(13 years as an expatriate leads to some specialized knowledge :-)

Maybe, but you got part of that wrong. (a) For expatiate US persons, the first $78,000 (or there about; they keep upping the amount) of income is exempt. (b) If you file, but do not pay, they can grab US assets, but they cannot extradite you nor arrest you if you come back, because no crime has been committed. Failure to file is a crime; failure to pay is a civil matter. S a n d y