#i even went back to school online for a technical diploma in library studies

[puffywiz]

Rare moment of me sharing my actual life but my dad split the cost of a printer for me for xmas and I am so so excited and pleased with it! I now have way too many test samples of my silly little star wars OC lol. I want to make art my actual career so this is a really cool step toward that dream 💗

[newstfionline]

When The IRS Tracks Down “Accidental Americans” In France

Marie Visot, LE FIGARO, 28 March 2018

PARIS--In 1964, a happy young French couple moved to the United States. The husband had just taken a new job at IBM and his wife was expecting their first child. They spent two hectic years in this country they didn’t know, together with their little Renaud, who came into the world just a few months after they’d settled--in Poughkeepsie, New York. Then, following a transfer, the family returned to France, moving into a home near Paris.

Renaud knew that being born on the other side of the Atlantic, he had dual-citizenship. “When I was a teenager I used to show off a little to my friends, even if I didn’t know the country,” he says. But coming of age, he assumed he’d lost his American citizenship. Then, one day in 2013, his bank, HSBC, told him they’d found a “trace of Americanization” in his file.

At first, he didn’t worry too much about it, thinking it was maybe a mistake. But a few months later he discovered an astonishing transaction on an account he had with a different French bank, Caisse d’Epargne. “At that time I had almost 5,000 euros of Home Depot shares that my father had given me. In September 2013, I decided to sell them--at a loss!--and earned only about 4,100 euros. In November, I was astonished to see that the bank had canceled the entry and only re-credited 2,900 euros to my account. The difference was the $1,500 deducted at the source without my consent from the U.S. tax authorities. I was livid.”

There are several thousand people like Renaud, who are French but also “accidental Americans.” He never took the necessary steps to renounce his U.S. citizenship, so technically, he’s still a citizen of this unfamiliar country. But because he doesn’t want to file a tax return in a foreign country to which he has “no ties,” he’s also an outlaw--at least from the U.S. perspective. And as a result, he lives with the permanent danger of a tax adjustment or lawsuit--a “sword of Damocles” hanging over his head, he says.

In the United States, taxpayer status is based on nationality, not on residence. And being a U.S. taxpayer means having to declare your income to the IRS every year, regardless of where you live or work. In 2010, Washington passed the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA), a piece of legislation designed to fight against tax evasion that requires banks around the world to disclose information (income, account details, etc.) on any of their U.S. clients whenever their accounts exceed $50,000. Failure to do so may result in penalties.

He lives with the permanent danger of a tax adjustment or lawsuit.

In 2013, the two countries reached a bilateral agreement making FATCA effective in France. Bi-nationals who never intended to break the law are getting singled out regardless. That’s because every American--”accidental” or not--is subject to the same rules. As such, hundreds of French people have received bank letters in recent years obliging them to regularize their situation with the U.S. tax authorities.

To say that most of them were dumbfounded is an understatement. Some people have decided to bury their heads in the sand--even if means one day having to pay back taxes or penalty fees. Others make an effort to get their paperwork in order with the help of lawyers and arrears payments.

As for those who want to relinquish their nationality, they must first regularize the past five tax years. The sums can go up quickly. Taxes paid on income in France are deducted from those claimed by the U.S. But many investments are taxable. In France, you can deduct part of your private pension contributions from your taxes, but not on the other side of the Atlantic. The tax bases also differ between the two countries, notably on things like life insurance and the sale of principal residences.

Marilyn knows this situation all too well. Born by chance in Georgia in 1950, from a Breton mother and a British father, she had an American passport until the 1970s. “I returned it to the embassy,” she says. “At the time, you had to choose only one nationality before you turned 25.” Then, in 2015, she received a letter from her bank asking her to give information because she is American. Of course, it’s a mistake, she assumed. But when her online bank, ING, announced that it was closing her life insurance, she realized that things were perhaps more serious than she’d thought.

Nobody at the embassy can find any record that she relinquished her U.S. citizenship. “I thought the sky had fallen on my head,” she says. So once again, she began taking the necessary steps to bring herself into compliance. As best as she could, she tried to regularize her tax situation from the last few years. That led to another bad surprise: the IRS asked her to pay several thousand dollars in taxes even though she is not liable in France, having gone through a period of unemployment. She filed a claim with the IRS and hopes to receive a prompt response. In the meantime, she cannot sell her house without having to pay a capital gains tax.

Olivier Clifford, for his part, was able to renounce his U.S. citizenship. “But it’s racketeering!” he says. Born in 1966 in Chicago--his father completed his studies as a dentist that year at Northwestern University--he spent just 13 days on American soil before returning to France. Nearly a half-century later, in 2014, his bank, Axa, contacted him with the news that they’d found “a trace of Americanness” and gave him one month to transfer his accounts. “I felt totally helpless as if the ground was falling from under my feet,” Clifford says.

That’s when he decided to give up a nationality he’d never felt a genuine claim to in the first place. “I realize that the country only sees me as a walking piggy bank. I don’t see why I’d pay for American highways or schools when I never even used them!”

U.S. authorities then asked him to prove that he had always lived in France. “I went and dug up vaccination cards, certificates of school attendance, library cards, diplomas, etc.,” he recalls. Clifford also called on a tax consultant, who took almost a year to reconstitute his bank account history and compile his tax file, which ran 400 pages! “The total cost of this operation came to about 12,000 euros--6,500 euros for the consultant, 3,500 euros in taxes and 2,000 euros in administrative costs. It’s a good thing I had some savings. For some French people, that means six months of wages.”

[hamonnose]

When did you drop out of school? Would you recommend it for someone struggling in school? Do you have a job? Any plans to take GED?

So my situation is a bit different from most. Especially in terms of entering the job market after dropping out. So imma try to organize this answer as best as I can and bold/italicize the relevant stuff. I’ll answer in order of (what I think has the highest) importance, and the simplest answers. Mentions of depression and suicide/suicide attempts ahead.

Would I recommend it for someone struggling in school? Depends on how you’re struggling? Are you (I mean the hypothetical collective you, not you specifically anon) failing all your classes? If so why? Are you not understanding the material and feel like giving up? If so, no. I do not recommend it. Sit in the library and study, get a tutor (if you have the means), ask your teachers to clarify (I’m wary around teachers so I understand if you wouldn’t wanna do that). Is your family going through a rough time and you want to help them by getting a job? Do what you need to do and don’t feel ashamed. Is going to school damaging your mental health to a point where you feel scared and are contemplating killing yourself? Are bullies physically or mentally abusing you every day? Are you being abused physically or mentally at home and want to drop out of school so you can get away from them too? Get out of there. Do it, I recommend it. Your education is important but your health and wellbeing are more so. No bells and whistles there friends. If it is healthier to get out of school, get the fuck out. Go somewhere and get your GED when you can but TAKE CARE OF YOURSELF DAMMIT! Though if the abuse/detriment to your health is only at school and you have a good support system. Research other ways of getting out of there that don’t involve dropping out. The CHSPE in CA, ask for an early GED, independent study, homeschooling, these are all good alternatives to dropping out if you are just not safe at school.TL;DR? If it’s a matter of safety get the fuck out. If it’s a financial matter, don’t be ashamed to do what you have to. If you wanna give up ‘cus school is hard… Stop. Breathe. Ask for help, you can do it.

Plans to take the GED? Yep! As soon as my therapist and I figure out a way for me not to have crippling anxiety every time I open a text book to study. You didn’t ask why but lemme tell you, I dropped out of school because with my mental health the way it was it was literally dangerous for me to go to school every day. I have PTSD. It sucks, and if you wanna know more about it go ahead and ask. My triggers are my old schools, classroom settings, and sometimes (a lot of the time) text books. So studying has never been something I can really do without needing to be watched by someone to make sure I don’t try to kill myself again. To be fair, I’ve already tried to take the GED without studying and managed to pass the English and Social Studies tests. Math and Science not so much. So I have to go back and try again, this time I’m going to study. I might need to get some medication for my mental health before I can do that, but I am going to get my gosh darn GED if it is the literal last thing I do on earth.TL;DR? Mental health is hard and my triggers are everywhere. But yes.

(The rest is going under a read more cus I don’t want it to get too long)

Do I have a job? Currently no, but I have gotten jobs in the past (yep after dropping out). Anon friend idk if you found me through the post I added to or if you’re a follower but my preferred career is in show business. You don’t really need a formal education to get in (it helps but hey it’s not crucial). I got a job offered to me with a children’s theatre company that I had acted with for a year or two, but they didn’t know I dropped out. They never asked and I never mentioned it, but I won’t get to into that one since not everyone wants to teach kiddos about the joys of acting with a nonprofit organization. A job I had to apply to was my part time Halloween City job. I filled out an online application and when it asked my level of education I put “GED or equivalent of diploma” because I was in the process of getting my GED. When I went to the interview though the manager never asked about my education just my previous work experience that I had in restaurants. Which brings me to: I never had to worry about getting a job if I dropped out because my family owns a business. Well ok, my grandparents own a business. I grew up in a restaurant because my mom had been working at her parent’s business since she was 12. They gave her her own restaurant to manage but when they had to close that one down they sent her to work in another one of them with her brother. That restaurant was in my home town. It’s the reason I live where I live (and I lemme tell you there are only like 3 good things that came out of this town). ‘Course that one also ended closing down (family emergency, medical bills, and bad economy don’t add up to a successful restaurant), which left my mom, her husband and I jobless. I had already dropped out by the time it closed down but we had enough money saved up from working there that we’re doing ok for now. The point here is, while I would loath to have to do it I could always ask my grandparents for a job and I would have one within the week. The job market was never a concern of mine because my grandparents could give me a job if I needed one. All I had to do was ask. Hell I’d been helping with book keeping since I was 16. So If you’re thinking about dropping out be realistic. Will your guardians/friends/extended family support you while you find a job that doesn’t care that you dropped out. Or will you need to save up money for a while before you can drop out while keeping yourself safe?TL;DR? I never had to worry about getting a job, but retail, restaurants, and other low level jobs won’t always care about your education.

When did I drop out of school? Short answer technically 1(ish) to 2 years ago, but it’s weird and complicated… In junior year (I was 16) I started a dual enrollment in an “alternative school” and independent study. What that means is I would show up for a half day at the “alternative school” (which is basically where they sent all the problem children) for like two or three subjects then do the rest of my schooling at home myself. I would go into the district offices once a week to go turn in my home study stuff and that would be that. Or that’s how it was supposed to work out. The first day of junior year I walked into my first classroom and out of the 5 students (excluding myself) 3 of them were bullies from my old school. I tried to kill myself that night. Spent a week in a mental hospital and came back to school a month after I got out. When I finally started showing up to school again they basically just let me sit in the councilor’s office all day and do my work there. I never had good experiences with the councilor, she tried to move me back into the classroom too fast and never really listened to why I didn’t want to. So eventually I just stopped showing up. Both to the “alternative school” and to my once a week district office meetings. Eventual after a month or two a truancy letter would show up at home and mom would drag me back to school and force me to go for a whole week or two before I just stopped showing up again until another truancy letter showed up and rinse and repeat. Eventually I just started ignoring the truancy letters. More and more kept showing up and eventually they threatened to take legal action against my mother if I didn’t go to school (I was 17 at the time). So I went and I told them I wanted to drop out. They told me I couldn’t since I was on an IEP (if you have questions about IEP’s and such feel free to follow up). So I showed up sporadically, once or twice a week, just enough to get them off my back. I researched how long a minor could not go to school without legal action being taken. Never really got a solid answer (gee thanks google) I just decided I wouldn’t show up again after winter break. And I didn’t. I got truancy letters and more threats to be taken by child protective services if my mom couldn’t get me to school. ‘Course both of us were like “Well I turn 18 in four months… I’ll be fine” and so technically that’s when I dropped out. But I was still technically enrolled and according to them I was still a responsibility of the district till I turn 21 all because of that stupid IEP. They said that I’d need to take them to court to get out of my IEP but I doubt that’s true. They tried to reason with me and get me to try and come back for a senior year (that I wouldn’t be able to even graduate after since credit wise I was at a freshman level still) but I refused. I took a chance, as far as I knew it was a 50/50 chance they would take me to court, if they did I was ready to bring up how badly they handled me and I started my research to see what my rights were, but luckily… I haven’t heard from them since. So while I never technically un-enrolled (is that a word? Sure) from anything I’m out of school.TL;DR? January 2015 I stopped showing up to school. Haven’t been back since.

If you’ve read this far anon (or anyone) feel free to ask more about my experiences with taking the CHSPE and the GED or anything really. I’ll be happy to talk about how bad the school system fucked me up if it helps anyone with anything. You can send an ask off anon and I’ll gladly answer on private unless otherwise stated. Feel free to send messages too, I might not answer right away but I promise I will. Take care of yourself, education is important but so is your health. Learn your rights as a person and as a student.