55 thoughts on “U.S. citizenship and a possible marriage penalty”

1. Badger, the far future could be one of the basic ignoring that seems to be a US pattern but near future is likely to be hellish and punitive in terms of those who give up citizenship and for those who keep it. If the far future retreats back to neglect and but punishments like being barred remain in place – more than a few people will have regrets. I doubt that I would fall in that category b/c any family I feel responsible for are quite elderly and won’t be around by that point. However, the daughter might feel differently and her children too (though they won’t be able to gain citizenship via her as I understand it, they could claim through me.)

   Here’s what amazes me though, how does the IRS have resources to worry about a few million offshore citizens when they are losing – apparently – billions through in country fraud and evasion? There was another article today talking about how they’ve had to assign an extra 3000 agents to deal with identity theft and tax refunds. How can they possibly monitor the amount of data that FATCA and such will generate? They admit they are tens of thousands of cases behind trying to clear up ID theft cases.

   If it takes 6 months to clear an in country ID theft, how long will it take with someone overseas? That’s assuming they can even accurately pinpoint USC’s abroad b/c Victoria’s report on the info mtg she attended makes it sound as though they are using very loose parameters and aren’t really concerned whether they are correctly identifying people or not. USC’s then might not be fingered but non-USC’s might find themselves in a mistaken ID nightmare for which there is little remedy.

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3. An exchange on Yahoo about the physical, social, mental and economic dangers inherent in the US forcing the reporting of non-US spousal assets via joint returns, and via the FBAR and FATCA jeopardy.

   http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20121010022701AABRGsp
   “I would like to know how FATCA can be safely implemented for US expats in the Third World?
   If you are an American, say married to a Middle Eastern man and living in the Middle East, how are you and your bank going to implement FATCA? The IRS wants to know about my husbands assets. I don’t even know about my husbands assets. Supposedly, if someone married to a US citizen shares a joint account with their spouse or it a 10% partner in a company has to file US taxes. How am I supposed to make my spouse do something like that? This is a human rights abuse that will lead to many Arab-American women put out into the street, penniless.”

   Additional Details
   “Sir, your English is terrible. I have no idea what you are trying to say.
   My point is this: I can be compliant. But, I cannot demand my husband who shares an account with me and is more than a 10% partner in a company be compliant. he is not a US citizen, but since he is married to me, the US is counting him as one. My point is that I cannot share his information wiith the US as he will disagree. And if i push him he will divorce me. I am saying that the law cannot be implemented outside the West because of human rights issues.”

4. Thanks, badger. Very dire consequences for the spouse in such a situation, multiplied many times over, more so in Third World countries. How much collateral damage is too much? How can it possibly result in life or death situations? Here’s only one example.

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