National origin discrimination, a federal crime in the United States, is now causing Americans in Thailand to be denied financial services due to US policy.
Federal laws prohibit discrimination based on a person’s national origin, race, color, religion, disability, sex, and familial status. Laws prohibiting national origin discrimination make it illegal to discriminate because of a person’s birthplace, ancestry, culture or language. This means people cannot be denied equal opportunity because they or their family are from another country, because they have a name or accent associated with a national origin group, because they participate in certain customs associated with a national origin group, or because they are married to or associate with people of a certain national origin.
United States Department of Justice
Nobody hates American law greater than the American government, who enjoys being criminal against the American people by causing innocent Americans abroad to be denied financial services simply because of their US national origin.
IT IS STARTING TO HAPPEN IN THAILAND NOW. Financial companies don’t want to do business with Americans, thanks to the tyranny of the IRS.
My wife is a dual citizen, Thai and American. We bank at the local K-Bank, the short name for KasikornBank in Thailand, and the bank has her ID of both citizenships. Yesterday, my wife went to switch a regular savings account into a year long CD with the same bank and was refused. The reason: they will not accept any new CD accounts from Americans, regardless whether they have the legal right to do so or not.
So sorry to hear this. I was not aware of this type of event happening in Singapore. What did I miss? Will start a new Twitter blast to Lew:
@SecJackLew First Switzerland, Now Thailand, #Americansabroad Denied Banking Services Due to #FATCA-Pls Amend This Law http://goo.gl/LbSXu
http://investmentwatchblog.com/should-you-move-to-another-country-to-escape-the-collapse-of-america-10-questions-to-ask-yourself-first/
Investment Watch is not unaware of FATCA and citizenship-based taxation and yet they didn’t warn Americans about the tax consequences of moving to another country. Instead they warn about weather, culture shock, medical care, crime, etc. Unbelievable! I added a comment.
Thailand has not entered into an IGA with the US but some Thai banks and insurance companies are taking proactive steps to minimize exposure by refusing to continue to deal with US persons. Unless China, Canada and other key countries just say NO to Fatca the situation will continue to deteriorate.
China appears to standing firm against signing a FATCA IGA, according to this Deloitte Switzerland newsletter from Feb 27, 2013 (first two paragraphs):
“Amidst the flurry of recent FATCA – related activity, notably the release of the final guidelines on 17 January and the signing of the U.S. – Swiss IGA on 14 February, one major lingering question concerns the impact of the FATCA regulations in China and the Special Administrative Region of Hong Kong. Neither jurisdiction appeared on the list released on 8 November by the United States Treasury Department setting forth all the countries with which the U.S. was negotiating intergovernmental agreements and dividing the countries into three categories based on the state of progress and anticipated final outcome. They were, in fact, the most prominent absentees. Moreover, officials from the Chinese government have at times publicly assailed FATCA as an intrusion on sovereignty, which unjustly shifts the cost and burden of U.S. tax regulations onto non-U.S. financial companies. While the grievance is not unique, as many countries have issued similar complaints, none has possessed the degree of counter-leverage available to China as the largest creditor nation of the U.S.
The sword wielded by the U.S. in order to foist FATCA upon non-U.S. financial institutions was the deprivation of access to the U.S. capital markets, the world’s deepest and most liquid. This threat sufficed to compel financial institutions to lobby their governments to find ways to align foreign laws with FATCA compliance and resulted in the several IGAs signed so far and the many more expected in the future. However, in most situations the local financial institutions needed to invest in the U.S. capital markets more than the U.S. capital markets needed their investments. With China owning trillions of dollars in U.S. government debt, that balance of incentives may not hold.”
http://www.deloitte.com/assets/Dcom-Switzerland/Local%20Assets/Documents/EN/Tax/FAHTCA/2013/ch_en_FAHTCAweekly_27022013.pdf
@Em
You might want to go back to that link to respond to a response to your comment where someone says filing a form is ‘no big deal’, and you won’t pay taxes because of tax treaties.
@WhiteKat, I may have forgotten something, but here’s my response to that:
@Em,
Good response. I added one too.
@Swisspinoy,
Ooops, I meant to direct my previous comment to you, not Em.
No worries, I figured that you were referring to my posted comment. 🙂
@ WhiteKat & swisspinoy
Thanks for adding your comments to the Investment Watch article. I wouldn’t be able to do better than you did and I doubt BD will be able to counter-reply what you wrote. I did some “up arrowing” for you.