FATCA Questions
Ask your questions about FATCA here.
This thread will be focused closely on renunciation questions and answers. If the conversation starts to ramble, those comments will be moved to another thread.
Related threads:
FATCA Discussion Thread for more general discussion of FATCA has opposed to specific questions and answers.
We were discussing Canada. As I mentioned earlier, Europe is a whole different kettle o’ fish.
Yet European banks are being accused here of supporting FATCA, through choice.
More than one post accusing people of being stupid for not using ID to open an account with something other than their ID card. Some seem to have forgotten that this forum is about all US citizens abroad, not just Canada.
A little empathy and understanding of the situation for others rather than ignorant accusations might go a long way, because otherwise you soon end up looking like your ignorant persecutors that sent people here in the first place.
Means and motive.
Means: European banks had records of citizenship and have always required ID showing birthplace. Canadian banks did not and still do not.
Motive: No idea why Canadian banks are so much less afraid of FATCA than European banks. History of Swiss banks being badly smacked perhaps, or fear of alienating large numbers of customers with US ties. Who knows?
Not sure where to ask — I cannot find the old information I think I had read here on the State Department Federal Credit Union. Interestingly, given that Belgium’s new tax laws are slowly but surely evolving towards total state control of everybody’s finances (starting in 2022 banks have to report balances of everybody’s accounts to a central unit that the finance ministry can access if they suspect fraud based on high balances — sounds like Biden’s plan cited above), I am thinking of opening another US account. I remember reading that the SDFCU was one of the only ones easily opened from abroad (if one is a member of, for instance, ACA). But online reviews are quite negative. I’d be grateful to have informed opinions… Thanks. And sorry for posting this in the wrong place…
@ Fred (B),
I moved your comment here on the FATCA questions thread.
Re: ” I cannot find the old information I think I had read here on the State Department Federal Credit Union.”
I found some comments about SDFCU on the Renunciation thread::
http://isaacbrocksociety.ca/renunciation/comment-page-318/#comment-8257842
http://isaacbrocksociety.ca/renunciation/comment-page-318/#comment-8257925
http://isaacbrocksociety.ca/renunciation/comment-page-318/#comment-8257954
The links don’t always work correctly for long threads. So, if the links land you on the wrong page, you can edit the address bar to read http://isaacbrocksociety.ca/renunciation/comment-page-342/#comments The first comment is timestamped 2018.06.03 at 4:30 am.
Thanks!