Banking Issues

83 thoughts on “Banking Issues”

1. @ Ron Henderson,
   Thank you. The child who files has disclosed his US citizenship to his employer, because it is a significant factor for his job. Therefore, the FI that holds his pension (presently his biggest asset) knows. This is but one more “disclosure trap”.

2. @Duchesse

   Your child who files has only two choices, realistically: continue filing forever, or renounce. If they are wealthy enough that renunciation would incur an exit tax, they could avoid evade that by not filing Form 8854 after renouncing.

3. I was wondering how one could open up a bank account in France or Switzerland with a US birthplace. I have citizenship in France (EU) Switzerland USA and Canada.
   I have heard most banks won’t allow US born clients to get bank account. I am under the radar for IRS so don’t want to disclose any info to them. I noticed that only place of birth is on EU passport but not country so maybe pretend the place is in Canada?
   Banks in Canada don’t ask for ID with birthplace.

4. The problem is often that a place of birth is on the ID card required in order to open the account. There are still some banks and financial institutions that won’t have Americans but plenty that will, so basic banking should not be an issue.

   If my US place of birth also happened to be a place in Canada and I have A Canadian passport, I know what I would do.

   Incidentally, I would not worry even if I was on the IRS radar, what are they going to do when they have pretty much zero information and no ability to enforce a damned thing?

   The idiot Yanks, after causing global mayhem and hundreds of billions in costs have just realised they have created a massive database of complete crap on other nations residents and citizens who likely don’t owe, can’t be made to file or pay and in which real US tax evaders can just lay low, a needle in a truly massive US made haystack.

   So they have not allocated any budget to processing it.

   As John Richardson frequently says, you could not make this up because nobody would believe it.

5. Its such a silly situation we are in. I was less than 1 when I left USA and never went back lived worked or studied there so its absurd that I should fill out income tax forms for them. But the canadian passport clearly has country of birth on it but not the EU passport which surprised me.
   I guess if there is no country of birth on the id card then you could tell the bank anything. My understanding is that very few banks would deal with US place of birth people in France and likely elsewhere in Europe.

6. @Johnny

   The practical solution to avoiding FATCA reporting and opening a bank account: use whatever combination of IDs works to convince banks that you were born in Canada, then fail to disclose your US citizenship when asked.

   The bombproof solution to the same problem: spend $2,350 to renounce US citizenship, then show your CLN to any bank that asks; not that you do not need to be caught up on US tax filings first, you can simply renounce and continue ignoring the IRS.

7. Any bank recommendations for Belgium?
   I’ve just been frozen by a bank here (unfrozen until June 1 after I gave them a piece of my mind) because I didn’t give up my SSN (which I have, and will reluctantly have to give up, perhaps with a typo).
   One lesson had learned for myself, but had forgotten when I started my company (LLC) : always have several banks. Now my company is stuck at one bank and when they froze everything I was helpless. That’s never going to happen to me again.
   I realize all banks are basically greedy businesses, but they don’t all act the same in all circumstances; thus my advice is have several accounts.
   Any experience with the Federal Credit Union as a bank to open a US account ?
   Thanks and cheers to all

8. If you need a basic, purely online US dollar account with a US routing number, use Wise.