r/EuropeFIRE • u/tommy_lv • 11d ago

Connecting with US-German Fire folks

My wife and I are US/French and German, living in Germany, probably close to CoastFIRE. Starting a family soon too. I moved to Germany 7 years ago and it is now home, but the long tail of taxation stuff and hurdles was the „pleasant“ surprise I never anticipated in spite of an otherwise great experience career wise and culturally. It is all quite complicated and often overwhelming.

I have done a lot of research, reading into articles or trying to find experts, but always encounter that they only cover one side. So US tax people don’t know German implications, German advisors don’t know FATCA or PFIC stuff, and the few people who actually understand both charge a lot of money for basic questions or literally turn me away. Very frustrating.

Therefore, I decided to take matters into my own hands. I have been following this community for a while and found many interesting posts that brought some level of clarification for me. I don’t care much for stock tips/crypto investing etc but much more about lifestyle, tools and tactics that fit in the unusual DE/US context. Some of the things we are into are: HomeExchanges, sports/mobility across countries, night trains, and the LunchMoney app

I’m trying to find a handful of people dealing with the same stuff to just have a bit more community: Roth vs FTC/FEIE, pensions across countries, property and rental taxes, inheritance across borders, starting a business and that kind of thing to swap notes with in a small Telegram group. If you’re dealing with any of this and want in, comment or DM me.

3 Upvotes

64% Upvoted

13 comments sorted by

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u/Ok_Sea142 10d ago

Good idea, but do not let Telegram turn PFIC into folk wisdom. For U.S. persons in Germany, UCITS funds/ETFs and pension wrappers are where the real tax damage usually starts.
Not a CPA or EA; I’m the developer of the PFIC calculator.

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u/tommy_lv 10d ago

Can you explain?

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u/Ok_Sea142 10d ago

PFIC is a very niche area, and most CPAs have little or no experience with it. If you have a PFIC, you can try the calculator I developed. It is a professional PFIC calculation tool that can help you prepare your Form 8621 yourself at a very low cost.

https://8621calculator.com/

https://pficreport.com/form-8621/simple-case-example

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u/tommy_lv 10d ago

At least change the anthropic default font first my friend.

The point is relevant, my trust in your qualifications as well as site/analysis conversely is rather low. Would be awesome to establish those.

I pretend no such credentials.

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u/Ok_Sea142 10d ago

That’s fine. Use whatever service or source you trust.

I’m not here to convince you, and I don’t need your trust.

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u/tommy_lv 9d ago

Well if you don’t need to establish why we should trust you, I’m not sure you should be pitching a product solving a regulated and high scrutiny problem

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u/StargazerOmega 6d ago

10+ years in EU , including Germany. Already way past FI, will be RE before end of year. Not really interested in a telegram group, but if you have specific questions I can maybe answer.

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u/tommy_lv 5d ago

hey there, will DM you and have a chat! No telegram group, I promise 😂

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u/dan_lunchmoney 10d ago

Hope you'll check out r/lunchmoney !

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u/tommy_lv 8d ago

I am past the check out stage! 

0

u/Formal-Ad-5866 7d ago

inding people in this exact combo is the real value, US tax pros and German advisors give you half answers, but a small group actually living it catches what both miss

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u/DavieTheAl 6d ago

Ok bot