u/Business-Dot-58

We are family of 3 originally from the US but have been living in Germany for a few years. I have a job offer from a company in Stockholm, so my spouse and I are considering a move and would love some honest, on-the-ground perspective before we commit.

• Neighborhoods for families - Imagine a friend of yours was moving to Stockholm with a 10-year-old daughter. Which neighborhood would you point them to? Ideally we would like a good public school with some level of support for immigrant kids who don't know the Swedish language.
• Making friends as newcomers - We currently live in Germany, and while we've genuinely enjoyed it here, one thing that's been surprisingly hard is building a real social network as outsiders. Is this easier or harder in Stockholm, in your experience?
• What actually works - For those of you who've built a solid friend group here (whether you're Swedish or moved from elsewhere), what helped? Clubs, sports, work, kids' school, something else?

If someone moved to Stockholm tomorrow and didn't know a single person, where would you tell them to begin?

UPDATE:

After talking to a Dutch tax advisor, the only real options seem to be what u/malzadog and a few others outlined

• Sell everything and buy a bunch of real estate
• Create a Dutch BV and move assets there. But all this does is defer taxes and there's possible complications with US taxes involving a foreign company
• Pay the box 3 taxes and then keep carrying over FTC (foreign tax credit) and apply it to US income when the time comes. Although the IRS does not officially recognize the deemed return tax as income, the attorney has not seen any issues with US tax consultants doing it this way.

The advisor wasn't really able to come up with any other options.

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I'm a US citizen about to relocate to the Netherlands for work and I'm trying to learn from people who've already lived through this. My concern is Box 3 on a large taxable portfolio. If you've made this move, I'd really like to hear how it went or how it's going right now.

My situation

• US citizen, would become a Dutch tax resident.
• ~$5–6M in a US taxable brokerage: mostly long-term unrealized gains.
• ~$2.5M in IRAs (traditional + Roth).
• New arrival, so I don't think the old partial non-resident election is available to me.

Here's what I know so far

• Box 3 taxes a deemed ~6% return at 36%. I think it comes out to roughly 2.5% of portfolio value per year, owed whether or not I sell.
• As a US citizen, my worry is that the foreign tax credit only offsets US tax on realized income, while Box 3 taxes an unrealized & fictional return. So in years I don't sell, the Dutch tax might be a real out-of-pocket cost rather than something the FTC washes out.

What I'd love to hear from people who've actually done it

1. What did Box 3 realistically cost you per year and did it match the 2.5% rough math?
2. Did you restructure anything before establishing residency (and would you do it the same way again)?
3. Did the US foreign tax credit actually relieve any of it, or did you pay Box 3 out of pocket on top of your US bill?

Regrets, harsh/blunt advise, etc. are all welcome. I'll be hiring a US-Dutch cross-border advisor too but I want to walk in already understanding the real-world picture.