The report was obtained through an American Expatriates FB post of Fabien Lehagre, who is at the Association des Américains Accidentels.
Google translate seems to do a fairly decent job in translation of the report to English.
Your comments on the report?
A few excerpts:
“Certain guarantees must be provided by the French public authorities. The priority is to force the banks to stop discriminating and to respect more the privacy of their customers, so as not to be more diligent than FATCA demands.”
“If no progress is made, denunciation of the FATCA agreement should be considered as a perfectly feasible option… On all these issues, a common approach must be sought and promoted at the European Union level.”
“…reduce the administrative costs of renouncing US citizenship by returning to their previous amount of $ 400 and exempt the most modest individuals from their payment…revise upwards the thresholds in the application of expatriation tax and for the departure tax system”
“The situation of “accidental Americans” is part of a larger problem: the extraterritoriality of certain standards adopted by the United States. Errors have been made: it is now up to Parliament to be more vigilant in considering international agreements, such as IGAs.”
“We may have gone too fast on the FATCA law, whose purpose is in itself laudable and positive, since it is the fight against tax evasion and tax evasion. It is therefore normal that France has seen an interest in a reciprocal exchange of data for its own nationals. The agreement, however, did not report more cases of fraud and tax exile to the French tax authorities, unlike the Americans, with collateral damage extremely damaging to “accidental Americans”.”
“In the eyes of the rapporteurs, the number [of “accidental Americans”] does not matter. In fact, all the elements gathered at the end of their mission – including 156 concrete and documented testimonies ( 9 )- characterize a reality: that of practices and obligations likely to infringe individual liberties, and this, on the basis of an agreement whose current execution calls into question the sovereignty and interests of France.”
Read and comment on the report to the National Assembly of France.
(slow clap)
(slow excitement)
Merci beaucoup a MM. Le Fur et Saint-Martin. As long as there are reports such as this being submitted there is cause for optimism.
I am not an accidental American. I was born in the USA and became a French citizen almost 30 years ago. I renounced my American citizenship almost ten years ago.
The problems are not just with Accidental Americans. At this writing there are banks in France which demand I sign American forms – in English – before they are willing to do business with me, even though I am a French and not an American citizen. This is unacceptable.
W-8, or W-9?
In the UK I get asked by banks to sign a W-8; which I don’t object to, because it certifies for the bank the fact that I want to certify: that I’m not a US Person for tax-withholding purposes.
If they asked me to sign a W-9 form I would flourish my expensive CLN at them.
@phyllis and eff
Many people who are no longer American and have a CLN on file object to signing W8 or W9 as they are American forms. A W8 should only need be signed if you have US sourced income. Some banks provide their own non US version of a W8 which I believe is more acceptable. These I believe are only kept on file in the bank for the bank’s protection.
If you are not an American and have no US sourced income, then why should you be made to sign a US form.
@ All,
An interesting discussion on W-8 and W-9 forms developed on this thread out of the above three comments. As this thread is focused on the French National Assembly’s report on Accidental Americans, I’ve copied these three initial comments on W-8s/W-9s to the Banking Issues thread and moved all further comments on that topic from here to that thread.