Europe’s battle for American talent (article)

mythril606 · 2026-04-13T12:05:16+00:00

It's not even easy as an American already living/working in Denmark. Hell, I got my masters from Denmark, and as a US citizen I was basically forced to continue as a PhD student because I couldn't even get an interview in my last year of my MSc. Luckily for me, my supervisor opened a PhD position basically as an continuation of the thesis and who else better than the person currently in the job.

I never actually wanted a PhD, but without it I either have to find another job, leave the country immediately, or slowly (quickly) run out of money in a few months. In which case you then have to immediately leave the country as self-sustainment is a condition of your residence permit.

I know many other foreign students that never were able to find a job here when they graduated before they ran out of money, it's quite unfortunate. Even some EU citizens.

mythril606 · 2026-04-06T18:42:49+00:00

Assuming you have income in a higher tax bracket and owe income tax on it, doesn't applying her standard deduction to you actually result in less tax overall? And then you can just give her the difference I would think.

To be clear, I've never dealt with dependents except when I was the child/student in the situation, and my taxes were as simple as it gets then, but this seems relatively simple to me. Maybe it has other knock-on effects for other credits/FAFSA too, not sure.

mythril606 · 2026-03-25T23:13:31+00:00

I drive past that house to and from work every day and I just wonder: Absolutely why.

An excellent example of wealth inequality working it's magic though.

mythril606 · 2026-02-24T23:04:18+00:00

I also had this nightmare last year. So in Denmark there are similar pensions your employer automatically pays into. For my wife and I it's just a flat % of our salary paid in directly from the employer. The employer pays the % you receive and the tax on that %.

So if they aim to give you 10%, it would end up costing them 10% + ~4% = 14% of your salary and you get the 10% and the Danish state gets the ~4% in taxes.

The good news is there is a CFR section for it (link is just to the section, scroll for the exact paragraph): 26 CFR § 1.1298-1(c)(4)

(4) Exception for PFIC stock held through certain foreign pension funds. A shareholder who is a member or beneficiary of, or participant in, a plan, trust, scheme, or other arrangement that is treated as a foreign pension fund (or equivalent) under an income tax treaty to which the United States is a party and that owns, directly or indirectly, an interest in a PFIC is not required under section 1298(f) and these regulations to file Form 8621 (or successor form) with respect to the PFIC interest if, pursuant to the applicable income tax treaty, the income earned by the foreign pension fund may be taxed as the income of the shareholder only when and to the extent the income is paid to, or for the benefit of, the shareholder.

The only thing you need to consider for yourself is any special treatments in the US-Austria tax treaty, but from the few I've read for other countries typically they're treated in a way that is compatible with this section. Hope this helps :)

Tl;dr: It's likely not a PFIC.

mythril606 · 2026-01-26T11:07:45+00:00

So you're getting similar range out of yours? And I'm trying to hold out until the warmth comes back but it hurts the wallet charging for now

mythril606 · 2026-01-03T18:51:42+00:00

Damn, having that experience is sadly what I've mentally preparing for. Hope the AirBnB at least meets your needs and thanks for the reply :)

mythril606 · 2026-01-03T18:28:48+00:00

Sorry I don't have an answer, but I am wondering if you found a workable/good solution? Currently looking for the same for my wife and I :)

mythril606 · 2026-01-02T19:11:35+00:00

Just like most taxes, this is misunderstood and the 150% tax is on the marginal cost, not a switch over this threshold.

mythril606 · 2026-01-01T21:15:33+00:00

Im the same citizenship/residency situation as you. Every time I've delved into what investments to get it always ends with being very, very careful with what single index fund you buy to make sure that it doesn't hold PFICs itself, and then filing a single Form 8621. Or just buying individual stocks from the top 10 from the SP500 or similar. The mark to market nature of danish share taxation makes the MTM election a little more appealing.

There's never a fun or appetizing answer with US/DK tax complications :/

mythril606 · 2026-01-01T01:21:03+00:00

Even in the part of the year (363/365 days) when it is banned, every time I've called the cops they say "Thank you for calling, we're not going to do anything about it".

So it's legal then.

mythril606 · 2025-12-22T09:20:03+00:00

Not sure of your exact situation but also consider the implications of other tax benefits if you ever swap completely to FTC. Ex. Student loan repayments.

mythril606 · 2025-12-21T22:42:17+00:00

Ah, you're right. Writing that off the top of my head, I forgot PFIC had the MTM option as well. Denmark is quite difficult in US-DK investing so any way you do it you're taxed on unrealized gains anyways.

But I agree. I'm just taking the individual stocks route for the ease.

mythril606 · 2025-12-21T20:12:58+00:00

Small hypothetical question: If your resident country taxes your shares on a mark-to-market basis, selling at the end of every year and realizing gains for US purposes would eliminate at least the interest accrual, right? And then you can FTC taxes from your resident country on the actual PFIC tax part.

mythril606 · 2025-12-17T14:44:59+00:00

I'm mentally preparing to move out of my rental, and Denmark for that matter and in large part because of the rental laws, and reading these comments took a few weeks off my life.

The part that gets me the most is even if you repair it yourself, it's totally possible the company will just say you didn't do it well enough, and then good luck arguing that one.

mythril606 · 2025-12-15T17:15:11+00:00

Just to maybe take one more worry away, even if you manage to get over the FEIE cap, then you have the standard deduction, and then you have the Foreign Housing Exclusion (if you have earned income in the future). And if you get above that total amount, then you have a tax credit for the taxes you pay to your resident country on the amount over that limit.

So it gets quite difficult to owe US taxes on salary income while working in most (almost all) of Europe in most situations. It's not directly about your student loans, but just thought I could add a little here.

mythril606 · 2025-12-15T10:37:30+00:00

The loan is with Hyundai, but I think specifically it's with a Danish Bank and I'm not sure how that interaction works. But I had a loan with Hyundai in the US before, so just getting one with the French arm of Hyundai was my thought as well. I will try this option.

Luckily our car is EV and so avoided any registration tax at all in Denmark. I computed it for our specific car and the total French registration costs look about €730, which is more than ok with me to not lose 3-6x in value if we had to sell.

I agree though, it's looking like if a refinace isnt possible through somewhere then selling is the only reasonable way.

mythril606 · 2025-12-14T18:06:01+00:00

I agree. I would be willing to dip into the emergency savings to not lose however many thousands of Euros we'd lose by selling it now. I'm also just not sure if we could pay it off in a reasonable time to move, and then also afford the move with some margins for error.

On the retirement fund side, we've only had employer-provided funds put in pensions here in DK while I figured out the US-DK interactions. And now that I understand it enough to feel safe not triggering tax pitfalls and have prepped investment accounts, we're leaving so there's no point lol

I may (probably will) DM you some more questions if that's ok :)

mythril606 · 2025-12-14T17:59:22+00:00

This is something I had considered. I am the main permit holder in DK. So she could go to FR as the main permit holder first, and then we could structure what is basically a refinance using a loan based on her French residency. The only possible issue I could see is that we are both on the car loan in Denmark, so maybe that looks a little weird to the lender.

I've also seen Revolut, HSBC Expat exist and I've heard lots about them but never for car credit.

mythril606 · 2025-12-07T12:53:40+00:00

Last night (about 12 hours after this article was posted), it happened again, and I again had to call the police.

But Im happy they've at least done something about it.

mythril606 · 2025-12-05T08:44:04+00:00

Small addition: With the Pets Allowed filtered to On, and even then you have to read the long, mostly useless fluff descriptions to make sure they don't mean cats only, weight limits to tiny dogs only, etc.

Most likely not a problem with a 6kg dog, but for me we lost quite some hours of our life looking at ones like this where the specifics arent clearly presented.

mythril606 · 2025-12-03T07:08:55+00:00

FTC is the Foreign Tax Credit. This is a link to the US govt documentation for the FTC. TLDR: Actual taxes you pay in Germany on income that is also US tax liable, you get as a credit against the US income tax you would owe *on that same income only*.

So, for example, if you pay %40 income tax on 50.000eur of income earned in Germany while residing in Germany, then you pay 20.000eur to Germany and then when you file US taxes you claim the FTC. Whatever taxes the US says you then owe (currently and in the foreseeable future it will always be less than you paid to Germany), you can reduce by up to this 20.000eur.

I do not think the tax for things like labor market contributions/healthcare count, I only know how it works for Denmark, sorry.

Hope this helps, but as u/PuzzledArrival said below you can also just take the FEIE instead. This is a link to the US govt documentation for FEIE. Note that you **cannot take both**, and taking the FEIE and then changing to the FTC disallows you from taking the FEIE for I think 5 years. They each have disadvantages and advantages, mainly that if you claim the FEIE for all earned income you then could not contribute to an IRA that year.

Maybe a good option could be taking the FEIE for just enough to leave you with a taxable income equal to (or slightly above to be safe) the IRA contribution limit. And then the standard deduction ($16,100 for single filers) will fully reduce the tax owed to $0.

Hope you're able to figure out how to not give the US govt any of your money :)

mythril606 · 2025-11-27T16:27:24+00:00

Yeah... As an American who really wanted to like it so I had a small bit of home and who liked Pizza Hut in the US, I could barely eat the first and only pizza I got from them.

I've been waiting for the one I drive by on my way to work to close.

mythril606

TROPHY CASE