I am sorry to downvote you but this is bad advice that could cost some lurker quite a bit of penalties. The fact that aethr and so many other people bring up the drastic step of renunciation should have told you right off the bat that this is not a matter of "$50 and 2 hours" learning Turbotax.
The issue is not the tax owed (which as you correctly note tends to come out near zero) but the reporting requirements, which go well beyond those imposed on people who live in the US and keep all their assets there. Turbotax and other consumer software packages do not (and likely never will) support the kinds of complex forms you have to file if you settle outside the US and start leading a normal financial life like any other resident of your adopted homeland: Form 8621 if you'd like to buy ETFs on your local stock exchange, Form 3520 if you're obligated to participate in a local retirement plan --- and most relevantly to Hacker News, Form 5471/8858 (and maybe a 926 and 8832 as well) if you'd like to start your own company where you live. Estimated time for completion for Form 5471 for example is 44 hours (plus a recordkeeping burden of 130 hours, primarily due to the part where you have to redo all your company's accounts in US GAAP), and it has a failure-to-file fine of tens of thousands of dollars per accounting period.
All of these forms (except Form 8938 & FBAR) must be filed regardless of the tax owed or the value of the asset in question. These forms (and their associated failure-to-file penalties) were designed with extremely rich onshore people in mind --- because Congress didn't think anyone besides a multi-millionaire tax-evader would use a "Controlled Foreign Corporation", "Passive Foreign Investment Company", or "Foreign Non-Grantor Trust". But as it turns out, the way the rules are written, literally every American who lives abroad for more than a few years ends up in a similar boat as American homelanders with more than 100x their income/assets, and has to pay accordingly for tax advice --- not advice on how to reduce their taxes (since once taxes in the country of residence are taken into account, there is already no tax owed), but advice on how to properly report to the IRS.
The issue is not the tax owed (which as you correctly note tends to come out near zero) but the reporting requirements, which go well beyond those imposed on people who live in the US and keep all their assets there. Turbotax and other consumer software packages do not (and likely never will) support the kinds of complex forms you have to file if you settle outside the US and start leading a normal financial life like any other resident of your adopted homeland: Form 8621 if you'd like to buy ETFs on your local stock exchange, Form 3520 if you're obligated to participate in a local retirement plan --- and most relevantly to Hacker News, Form 5471/8858 (and maybe a 926 and 8832 as well) if you'd like to start your own company where you live. Estimated time for completion for Form 5471 for example is 44 hours (plus a recordkeeping burden of 130 hours, primarily due to the part where you have to redo all your company's accounts in US GAAP), and it has a failure-to-file fine of tens of thousands of dollars per accounting period.
http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/i5471.pdf
All of these forms (except Form 8938 & FBAR) must be filed regardless of the tax owed or the value of the asset in question. These forms (and their associated failure-to-file penalties) were designed with extremely rich onshore people in mind --- because Congress didn't think anyone besides a multi-millionaire tax-evader would use a "Controlled Foreign Corporation", "Passive Foreign Investment Company", or "Foreign Non-Grantor Trust". But as it turns out, the way the rules are written, literally every American who lives abroad for more than a few years ends up in a similar boat as American homelanders with more than 100x their income/assets, and has to pay accordingly for tax advice --- not advice on how to reduce their taxes (since once taxes in the country of residence are taken into account, there is already no tax owed), but advice on how to properly report to the IRS.