At a first look, the Obama store is quite impressive. It’s got goodies for all kinds of people, many of which were discriminated against in the past. A google on “women” returns 1’980 hits. “African” scores 1’950 hits. Nurses, Latinos and environmentalists just barely trailed behind with 1’940 listings each. “Jewish” returns 1’930 listings. “Veterans” is listed 1’920 times. While the word “Gay” only returned the home page, “LGBT” was found 1’840 times. Quite impressive! Pets are listed 1’820 times. There is even an “LGBT for Obama Dog Bandana“! Dogs are very important voters in presidential elections, with a relevance of 470 results. “Asian“, being less profitable for the campaign than dogs, returned 198 listings linked 194 times to “Pacific Islanders”. However, AAPI‘s do have their own collections page listing 4 items, unlike dogs. For babies, 198 listings were returned, but nothing for Mormons, for whatever reason, even though they are not Muslims who also have nothing to buy.
But, that’s not why I went to the store. I want to the store to see how valuable Americans abroad are for campaign contributions and I looked and looked, but could not find. No abroad, no overseas, no expat, no nothing. Not even “US person“, FATCA, FBAR, or offshore. Foreign, however, popped up 1’760 times, but that’s only to say:
This contribution is not made from the funds of an individual registered as a federal lobbyist or a foreign agent, or an entity that is a federally registered lobbying firm or foreign agent.
So, what does this show? It shows that Americans abroad, Mormons and Muslims are not shopping at the Obama store. I certainly could shop at the Obama store and wouldn’t mind doing so, but what have Democrats offered Americans living abroad? Nothing that I could find. Yet, even if I could find something for Americans living abroad, the billing page only accepts the United States in the country dropdown.
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*It does seem that President Obama changed his mind about Americans Abroad. Today he does not recognize their existence. Four years ago he supported them. How can we understand this? Americans Abroad have no Representation and are being taxed and penalized right and left. Every one should become member of ACA: http://www.aca.ch
Obama and Americans in the US will have as much sympathy for us as those struggling in the icy waters had for those in the life boats during those last few minutes after the Titanic was lost.
*I almost became lifetime a member of ACA, but I couldn’t send a check from my US account to a Swiss address. Since then, I haven’t been sure if I’ll still be a US citizen. If my bank suddenly changes its position, then I’ll be heading to Bern to renounce. The current situation is that my bank refuses to finance the mortgages of US citizens in Switzerland and Swiss citizens in the US, while I’m hanging on a thin thread in the middle with Uncle Sam holding scissors.
*@Swisspinoy: Sorry to hear about your mortgage difficulties. A Swiss-American friend of mine was dumped by UBS and went to Raiffeisen. Are all the Kantonalbanks dropping duals?
Is anyone really surprised by the lack of support for Americans living abroad? Isn’t America filled with nationalists who can’t imagine why anyone would want to live anywhere else? The idea of holding onto the US Pass “just in case” is a luxury. I found it to be a burden. While it is true that the US can deny entry to an individual for no given reason, I don’t think they are doing that to quiet neutral Swiss persons who want to go shopping or visit their elderly parents. And if they want to deny entry anyway, well then why would any one in their right mind want to be a citizen of such a country?
@jer33.3
Good point. ConfederationH may be right in calling it ‘Stockholm syndrome’.
Some of you might like this Obama Store better (parody):
http://whitehouse.gov1.info/store/shop.html
*Jer33.3, the Kantonalbanks are dropping duals who live in the States, but not in Switzerland, at least for now, but tomorrow it might be different.
*@swisspinoy, @jre33.3
Now I’m really dazed and confused :rool: I thought it was the other way around! I thought the UBS was accepting clients in their Baden office and Raifeisen was dumping US persons.
My mortgage with the UBS is due for renewal pretty soon and they are oblivious to the fact that I’m a US person, so I’m not sure if I should just renew (they already made me an offer) and lie to them if they ask me if I’m a US person or, if they don’t ask me I wonder what will happen when they do find out
😳 Will I be tarred and feathered and run out of town and be forced to pay up the interest they would be losing?
@swisspinoy Sorry for not getting back to you last weekend, was pretty busy. How about this Friday perhaps?
*UncleTell, It depends upon your situation. The press and some individuals stated that UBS closed the accounts of US persons and refuses to accept them as new customers, but UBS told me that duals can finance their mortgage at the Baden branch. What I don’t know is if US persons who are not Swiss can have an account at the Baden branch. Last I checked, if I remember correctly, UBS has the mortgage highest interest rate at comparis, meaning that a UBS client can save maybe 20’000 CHF in 5 years if they renounce US citizenship and switch to SwissQuote.
I just learned that VP Bank in Lichtenstein will have closed the accounts of US persons by the end of the year and I’m waiting for a response on the situation for duals.
I’ll have to check with Friday. Sat or Sun might be better.
@UncleTell As far as I am concerned, you are legally permitted to lie, because if you do not lie your constitutional rights will be abridged, and visibly the Confederation is not going to intervene (at least until people with money succeed in bringing court cases). If I were you I would read through the Constitution, Code des Obligations and the Swiss Penal Code, paying particular attention to the legitime defense clauses of the latter and the rights guaranteed in the Constitution. There is also RS291 Art 23 Then figure out what your strategy is going to be and stick to it.
Often what happens with mortgages is that they call you a few months before and ask you how long you want to renew for. As them to send you a couple of options. Then you just fill out a form and send it back. Perhaps when the date comes near, you could look at the rates they are offering on their web site, and then just write them asking for whatever of the offers you prefer. More than likely if you do not bring up the question of second nationality, they will not bring it up.
@Swisspinoy. I seem to remember that the cantonal banks of Zug, Fribourg, Basel were not accepting duals, and that their websites said so. Perhaps there may be an exception for duals who live in the canton, but I have no information to verify that. As far as I know UBS, CS and Postfinance are still providing basic banking services to residence permit holders and duals. UBS has a special branch for this, I do not know what the fees are.
There seems to be a lot of confusion about what is possible where, but I am sure there is a lot of case-by-case differentiation. One can think of the different possiblities. The banker suspects the customer to be a USP but customer has a Swiss Passport, so the banker doesn’t ask any questions. The banker could ask, and the customer say, I am Swiss and I live and pay my taxes in Solothun, and that might be the end of it. Or the banker could press the matter and the customer could threaten him with legal action, bad publicity, or some other form of retaliation.
The bankers will have to think, gee, there are 20’000 USPs in Switzerland. They are starting to get better organized. Do I really want to go against such a sizeable minority in a small country where it is pretty difficult to hide? Most of the USPs in Switzerland are likely to be reasonably well educated as the US has universal education; some other ethnic minorities in Switzerland do not come from places with effective universal education.
It is also conceivable that local politicians and local party bosses are secretly telling the bankers to look the other way, especially in the case of bone fide residents and duals. Politicians are slowly becoming aware of the issues, even if they are not yet acting publicly in a coherent fashion. There is a wave of resentment growing against the actions, inactions, and prostrations, of the Federal Council.
This page on FATCA from Rentes Genevoises (a Geneva insurance company that provides 2nd pillar mandatory pension schemes for employers) is quite interesting http://www.rentesgenevoises.ch/default.asp?langage=1&nodeID=419
*From what I have read, the soon-to-come FACTA form will ask if we are US Citizens or duals. How can a Swiss-US get around a direct question? This is my fear. I have renounced, but my grown children have not. We don’t have large bank accounts of money, and that is the Scheisse: the little ones suffer along while the big ones were smart enough to hit their assets a long time ago…..
*Jefferson D. Tomas, Basel told me some time ago that they accept duals, Zug said today to look elsewhere. Looks like I’ll have to check with the other cantonal banks and my list will grow longer.
*Thanks for the info guy (ladies?) folks sounds better 🙂
I guess my worst case scenario is if I renew with UBS (have an offer for 2% for 10yrs) and after 1 or two years UBS finds out I’m a USP and gives me a swift kick in the derriere! If the libor rate is lower than 2% ( which i doubt) I could possibly owe the UBS the differnce for the remaing years. I doubt that I’d be very amused. Like jer33.3 said, I bet the Swiss banks will start their “due diligence” on existing clients asking us if we are USP’s, that’s when the shit really is going to hit the fan!!