Media and Blog Articles Open for Comments – Part 5 of 11 (Year 2018)
You can access all years at this link: Media and Blog Articles – Links for All Years
If clicking on a link brings you to the wrong page in the comment stream, click here to get to the most recent comments.
Media and Blog Articles
EmBee suggested that it would be good if there was a thread for new articles, so that people would be aware of where to comment. So, I created this permanent page. I’ll make a permanent list of links posted here and keep adding to it, but not deleting, so we’ll end up having sort of a “bibliography” of FATCA/CBT articles. [Note: Some articles are not open for comments]
For more articles on FATCA, enter FATCA into Google then click on the link “more news for fatca” just below the most recent featured article.
Notes:
From JC: To see #FATCA on Twitter for latest breaking news. JC finds that is quite a good source and there even are some international articles that one may read using Google Translate. Others may help certain tweets and articles remain in elevated position by retweeting them.
From Badger: On an important archival note, please use the Internet Archive Wayback machine https://archive.org/web/ (see bottom right ‘Save Page Now’ box to enter URLs of webpages you want saved for posterity, and try to save backup copies of articles and other items of interest in some other form – such as a datastick or external drive. Some important and very significant webpages and the fulltexts of articles are no longer available (although some can be retrieved if someone using the Wayback machine saved them).
Be sure to read the comment stream for this thread — there are usually very recent articles mentioned
2018.12.23
New bill could lessen tax woes for Canadian residents with US citizenship: but the outlook is bleak for thousands grappling with Trump’s repatriation tax, Elizabeth Thompson, CBC News, Canada.
2018.12.21
Tax Fairness for Americans Abroad Act of 2018! Let’s Get This Passed! Anthony Parent, John Richardson, Keith Redmond, IRS Medic. US.
TTFI bill introduced today, great news for Americans living in Canada, Reddit Forum.
FATCA: Significant Relief in New Proposed Regulations, Jeremy Naylor, Amanda H. Nussbaum and Martin T. Hamilton, Mondaq.
2018.12.20
Tax Fairness for Americans Abroad Act, Democrats Abroad.
2018.12.19
TCJA and US Expats, Karen Alpert, Fix the Tax Treaty, Australia.
2018.12.18
Why Banks Have Become Judge, Jury & Prosecutor and will Shut you Down Judged Guilty for Nothing That is Actually Illegal, Patriot Rising.
20`18.12.17
IRS Issues Proposed FATCA Regulations, Adrienne M. Baker, Joseph A. Riley and Jeff J. Kang, Lexology.
2018.12.13
IRS Issues Proposed Regulations on FATCA, Other Reporting Conditions, ABA Banking Journal, US.
2018.12.11
How the IRS as Gutted, Paul Kiel and Jesse Eisenger, ProPublica, US.
2018.12.08
December 2018 International Tax Reform Updates- FATCA -GILTI – TTFI, Anthony Parent interviews Keith Redmond and John Richardson, IRS Medic. (video)
2018.12.05
Explaining GILTI – Individual Impact, Karen Alpert, Fix the Tax Treaty, Australia.
2018.12.03
Luxembourg: Exchange Of Information Vs Data Protection: A Brave New World Of Transparency, Antoine Dupuis and Guilles Sturbois, Mondaq.
2018.12.00 (December 2018 edition)
EU parliament versus FATCA, Financier Worldwide.
Newsletter, Purple Expat.
Articles from earlier in 2018 are in the Media and Blog Articles 2018 Archive. Links to previous years’ archives are also at that link.
Barbara,
Thank you.
Who knows? Maybe BoA only wants red white and blue blooded customers with no unpatriotic connections to unAmerican countries out there in Foreign.
It’s not good news for citizens of “mainly Muslim” countries, that’s for sure. Chinese citizens should also perhaps be careful before answering.
“It seems that their question is not only about immigration. Like FATCA, it appears to be about information gathering for unspecified (likely sinister) purposes.”
Could be. Not tax though. Unless there’s something I’m missing?
I am also confused. I have maintained my B oA accounts, they know of my non US citizenship status and my foreign resident status. I have heard nothing from them.
Can it be they are conforming to the need for Fatca reciprocity and are confusing Citizenship with residence status for future tax reporting? Perhaps they do not realise that all other countries do not equate tax status with citizenship as they do!
Plaxy, no one said it’s about tax. I brought this up because it’s about banks demanding citizenship information under threat of freezing a person’s banking services, regardless of whether they owe tax or committed a crime. A familiar issue to US expats, something new for homelanders.
The question is whether such a heavy-handed approach to an intrusive question will make it easier to illustrate to knucklehead homelanders about why we moan so vocally about FATCA and FBARs. My guess is no: Americans will accept any narrowing of their rights in the name of fighting t-t-t-t-terrorism.
“Can it be they are conforming to the need for Fatca reciprocity and are confusing Citizenship with residence status for future tax reporting? ”
How could that be? An account held by an individual resident in the US is not a foreign account any way you cut it.
OR
Maybe they will provide accounts to citizens of blacklisted countries IF those citizens also hold US citizenship.
But how about say an Iranian US resident with a green card?
@plaxy
But an account held by a US citizen resident abroad is reportable to the US. Maybe they think citizenship taxation is the norm.
I have met this before in talking to many in the USA.
“Plaxy, no one said it’s about tax. I brought this up because it’s about banks demanding citizenship information under threat of freezing a person’s banking services, regardless of whether they owe tax or committed a crime. A familiar issue to US expats, something new for homelanders.”
It’s not US citizens that are threatened though, is it. It’s citizens of other countries who are US residents, but not US citizens. And the threat may be not only account closure but also deportation.
I forgot, what does the Treasury Dept. regs require of US FIs in rards to FATCA?
“It’s not US citizens that are threatened though, is it. It’s citizens of other countries who are US residents, but not US citizens. And the threat may be not only account closure but also deportation.”
So why ask about dual citizenship?
Heidi – “But an account held by a US citizen resident abroad is reportable to the US. Maybe they think citizenship taxation is the norm.”
You think it’s likely that BoA doesn’t know who it is required to tell the IRS about? That seems much less likely to me than BoA’s explanation that they’re looking for customers from sanctioned countries.
Heidi – “Maybe they will provide accounts to citizens of blacklisted countries IF those citizens also hold US citizenship.
But how about say an Iranian US resident with a green card?”
Exactly. If USC, they’re safe.
@JapanT
Re fatca US treasury dept regs
At present only account interest of over $10 (but no account balance) is being reported to foreign countries.
@Plaxy
“Exactly. If USC, they’re safe.” So, why ask about dual cituzenship?
@Heidi,
Does that include residents of the US?
Plaxy
I agree, but knowing the way the US operates(or doesn’t) , I am always ready to explore all theories. 🙂
@JapanT
” Does that include residents of the US”
It would seem that it does if the man in question was a resident there. But we don’t know if other questions were asked re green card etc. If they needed to know all his citizenships but failed to ask if he was a legal resident, green card holder, visa holder etc then would they deny him an account if he was from a banned country?
It is possible that the banks may have been employed to search out illegals. Do we know what other questions were asked re status?
@JapanT
Sorry, think I answered your question re US residents at cross purposes.
I believe that only’ non resident’ US account ‘interest’ is reported to account holders resident country. Mine is supposidly reported to Switzerland IF I earn more than $10.
No account balances are reported, that is why the EU are questioning lack of reciprocity.
Non interest accounts would be supposedly
hidden.
“At present only account interest of over $10 (but no account balance) is being reported to foreign countries.”
Being reported to the accountholder’s country of residence, right? If they’re resident in the US their account is not foreign and not reportable under FATCA.
@plaxy
That’s what I said
“only ‘non resident’ account ‘interest’ is reported”
Heidi – yes, crossed postings. All clear now.
So it seems that in 2014 BoA got fined for not complying with US sanctions law:
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-bankofamerica-sanctions-settlement/bank-of-america-to-pay-16-6-million-to-resolve-u-s-sanctions-violations-idUSKBN0FT1V220140724
And now in its zeal to avoid further fined it has apparently travelled to the other end of the spectrum and is being accused of discriminating against Iranian-Americans:
https://www.forbes.com/consent/?toURL=https://www.forbes.com/sites/dianahembree/2018/05/22/bank-of-america-accused-of-discrimination-against-iranian-americans/
Plenty of examples of similar discrimination carried out also by other banks and in other countries.
Correction to that Forbes link:
https://www.forbes.com/sites/dianahembree/2018/05/22/bank-of-america-accused-of-discrimination-against-iranian-americans/
2014 is when Japanese banks began reporting under FATCA. Probably just a coincidence.
“2014 is when Japanese banks began reporting under FATCA. Probably just a coincidence.”
Both things are a consequence of globalisation plus the fear of terrorists and the advent of Big Data, I suppose.
Transferring money to sanctioned countries is a criminal offence for a US Person, it seems. So I was wrong about the customers with citizenship being safe. Safe from deportation maybe; maybe not safe from criminal charges.