Having been born in Australia and lived her whole life there, "Amy," as she wishes to be known here, had no idea that her life was about to be turned upside-down, and changed forever, in March, 2020, when someone from her bank said that they needed to ask her to fill in some details having to do with her citizenship.

Then suddenly, Amy says, her "OMG Moment" – as it's often referred to by accidental Americans, a group which Amy was soon to discover she was a member of – arrived... 

Over the last few years, thousands of so-called "accidental Americans" have grudgingly accepted the unexpected news that the U.S. considers them to be U.S. citizens, even though they had lived their entire lives, since birth, as citizens of other countries – and as a result of this news, are considered to have tax-reporting and potentially tax-paying obligations.

Like folks everywhere, Americans are often surprised to discover how different things can be when they live abroad. Sometimes the differences are small; sometimes they're hilarious.

In recent years, as the U.S. has started coming after American expats for unpaid taxes and penalties, the surprise for some Americans has come in the form of what one tax expert we know calls "that OMG moment of realization" that hits when you discover what life-long citizenship-based taxation actually means, and will mean for the rest of your life, particularly if you happen to be an American living abroad who has no immediate plans to return to the States...