FATCA and Mexico

7 thoughts on “FATCA and Mexico”

1. This is now:
   http://www.theyucatantimes.com/2015/09/u-s-irs-and-mexican-sat-begin-sharing-info-on-bank-accounts/

   ‘U.S. IRS and Mexican SAT begin sharing info on bank accounts’

   WASHINGTON, D.C. — “United States authorities have begun the exchange of information with Mexico on all Mexicans with bank accounts or investments in the U.S. who have obtained more than $10 USD in annual interest…”

   That was then;
   Remember that the US refused to help when Mexico asked prior to FATCA;

   August 24, 2009
   News Analysis: How the U.S. Is a Tax Haven for Mexico’s Wealthy
   by Robert Goulder

   http://www.taxanalysts.com/www/features.nsf/Articles/522A39903AFD6CFB8525761D004F113B?OpenDocument

   Mexico had asked “……the U.S. government to offer Mexico the same exchange of information terms the United States has with Canada. That’s significant because Canada is a special case when it comes to cross-border tax enforcement. Despite possessing one of the world’s most comprehensive tax treaty networks, the United States has meaningful information exchange with only one country: Canada.

   Mexico has now put the U.S. government on notice: It wants in on what’s previously been Canada’s exclusive arrangement. Should that inclination spread to other governments across the hemisphere, it could have extraordinary consequences for the U.S. financial sector. Think of it as the fiscal equivalent of the H1N1 flu virus. (For Carstens’s letter, see Doc 2009-5928or 2009 TNT 50-12.)…”

   See also;
   “LETTER TO SECTREAS ON SHARING TAX INFORMATION ——————————————— – 11. (SBU) Carstens drew the Ambassador’s attention to the publication of an article based on a private letter that Carstens had sent to Treasury Secretary Geithner proposing both sides discuss the sharing of tax information, particularly with regard to deposits of Mexican citizens in the United States. He said he had not leaked the letter to the press, and wondered if the leak had come from the U.S. side, either at a lower level or by the Secretary for the strategic purpose of launching a trial balloon. He said he understood why Treasury might want to float the topic publicly, but he wanted to know where the leak came from.”https://www.wikileaks.org/plusd/cables/09MEXICO2711_a.html

   Letter dated 9 February 2009 to U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner from Mexican Finance Secretary Agustin Carstens;
   http://www.letemps.ch/rw/Le_Temps/Quotidien/2009/07/22/Finance/ImagesWeb/Lettre%20du%20Mexique%20aux%20US.pdf

2. http://tax-expatriation.com/2015/12/14/foreign-government-criticizes-u-s-government-for-not-providing-fatca-iga-information-on-their-taxpayers-with-u-s-accounts/
   “Foreign Government Criticizes U.S. Government for NOT Providing FATCA IGA Information on Their Taxpayers with U.S. Accounts

   Posted on December 14, 2015 Updated on December 14, 2015

   This news is ironic. The U.S. government has chastised various banks and governments around the world since 2009 for not providing financial information on U.S citizens (USCs) and other U.S. taxpayers regarding their foreign bank and financial accounts. See, How Congressional Hearings (Particularly In the Senate) Drive IRS and Justice Department Behavior, posted Sept 8, 2014. FBAR 114 electronic

   Now, it is foreign governments’ turn, to criticize the U.S. Treasury and IRS for not keeping up with its promises to provide U.S. financial and bank information on taxpayers of their countries pursuant to all of the FATCA Intergovernmental Government Agreements (IGAs) that were pushed so hard by U.S. Treasury. “………..

   “he Commissioner of the Mexican IRS (SAT – Servicio de Administración Tributaria (SAT)), Mr. Aristóteles Núñez Sánchez just announced that the U.S. government is not holding up its side of the bargain under the U.S.-Mexico IGA. See, the Dec. 12, 2015 article en the national Mexican newspaper, El Universal, EU incumple entrega de informacion: SAT: Mexico ha hecho su parte, asegura Aristóteles Núñez

   The article, which is in Spanish, explains that Mexico has complied with its obligations under the IGA by providing detailed information about U.S. taxpayers with accounts in Mexican financial institutions to the U.S. government. However, the U.S. government has not complied with its side of the bargain. “……….

3. Interesting. While I hope that US foot dragging will irritate signatories of IGAs, perhaps to the point of stopping information “exchanges”, I’m not holding my breath. Rather, in all probability, the US will gladly start to hand over whatever info it has. It might not be as straightforward as the information collected by other countries for the US, but it’s a start. As usual this will entrap mostly small and unsophisticated players. The very rich and very corrupt will stay ahead of the game. And of course in the end the major injustice of it all boils down once again to citizenship-based taxation.

4. Eric’s latest thread re migration of US persons mentions stats re Mexico:
   http://isaacbrocksociety.ca/2016/01/16/un-300k-us-natives-got-out-since-2010/

   For ex.:
   “…Many of those who do move to a lower-income countries (the majority of the popular lower-tax destinations) are children of non-citizens, and not earning any income at all. Even those who are adults often earn less than when they lived in the U.S. (either because they’re retiring or because their new job pays lower wages), almost always leaving them below the FEIE threshold and sometimes leaving them with too little income to have to file a U.S. tax return at all. This is particularly true of Mexico, one of only two lower-tax countries among the top ten destinations for American emigrants: the majority of U.S.-born people moving there are children, accompanying Mexican parents who are returning to the country (sometimes voluntarily, sometimes due to deportation). A 2015 study by the Pew Hispanic Center found that among the 1 million people who left the U.S. for Mexico from 2009 to 2014, 100,000 were U.S.-born children under the age of five. I suspect that something similar may be true for Ecuador, though I have not found any sources stating so explicitly.

   As a result, the tiny minority in the U.S. government who know the actual situation of the American diaspora — some Treasury officials and Senate Finance Committee members — understand that the only way they can extract more money from us is by creating fictitious types of “income” on which no tax credits will be available, by breaking into foreign government-subsidised savings plans to pilfer their contents, by refusing to ameliorate double social insurance taxation, and by imposing obscene fines for paperwork errors. Different parties have emphasised different parts of this formula when in office, but all four of these trends were seen as early as the 1980s, and have expanded greatly since the 1990s….”…

   comment mentioning Mexico and the US re FATCA,
   http://isaacbrocksociety.ca/2016/01/16/un-300k-us-natives-got-out-since-2010/comment-page-1/#comment-7088858

5. http://www.expatsinmexico.com/fatca-impacts-expats-in-mexico/

6. http://theguadalajarareporter.net/index.php/news/news/international/49793-will-fatca-be-repealed

7. A very valuable comment from @escaped slave on another IBS thread regarding the context of those affected within and outside Mexico;
   http://isaacbrocksociety.ca/2017/11/29/support-the-paul-amendment-to-repeal-fatca/comment-page-7/#comment-8072267