Another thing to keep in mind is that, due to US tax law, you will essentially never be able to invest in e.g. an index fund again. You should walk into this assuming your Roth IRA, 401k, etc. will all be essentially frozen at their current values, and that the country you move to will not grant them any special privileges.
I would assume that only applies to the special tax-advantaged things listed, does it also apply to a generic brokerage account?
You assume wrong, good catch. It usually also applies to a generic brokerage account. Very hard to speak in generalities about this stuff, but no, I didn't mean to imply this is in any way because the accounts are special, but because the underlying investment vehicle is treated specially. Look up the rules around PFICs (Passive Foreign Investment Companies) if you want to get deeper into this.
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I would assume that only applies to the special tax-advantaged things listed, does it also apply to a generic brokerage account?
You assume wrong, good catch. It usually also applies to a generic brokerage account. Very hard to speak in generalities about this stuff, but no, I didn't mean to imply this is in any way because the accounts are special, but because the underlying investment vehicle is treated specially. Look up the rules around PFICs (Passive Foreign Investment Companies) if you want to get deeper into this.
https://www.bogleheads.org/wiki/US_tax_pitfalls_for_a_US_per...