Yearly Archives: 2012

“In Ernest Hemingway’s reminiscence A Movable Feast, one gets a glimpse of life among American expatriate artists and writers living and having adventures in Paris during the Roaring 20s. Today, American expats live all over the world – having adventures in Africa, creating art in Berlin, helping children in Cambodia, discovering ancient spirituality in India, and starting businesses in Tianjin. But all this may soon come to an end.”

Will FATCA mark the end of American global migration?

http://www.examiner.com/article/fatca-obama-s-new-year-surprise-against-american-expats

I believe Eric may have already touched upon this but it appears as if it has now been picked up by Reuters.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/11/28/us-asia-regulation-china-idUSBRE8AR0N720121128

It may be worthwhile for those of you in touche with Kevin Shoom to forward this article to him.

“China’s banking and tax laws and regulations do not allow Chinese financial institutions to comply with FATCA directly.” Liu said. He emphasized those were his views and not necessarily the opinions of the central bank or the Chinese government.

The law will only slightly increase U.S. tax revenues, Liu said. “One estimate says FATCA covers less than 2 percent of U.S. tax payers and would bring extra revenue of only $8bln over 10 years, he said.”

Liu was giving a speech on the foreign impact of financial regulation. He also noted the challenges posed to foreign banks by some of the regulation contained in the U.S. Dodd-Frank Act, such as the Volcker Rule. The rule bans banks from engaging in proprietary trading and will apply to many foreign banks if they have a branch in the U.S.

“The Volcker Rule seems to be intentionally designed to apply to a broad range of foreign institutions in order to level the playing field for U.S. entities subject to the rule.”

Canadian banks wary of U.S. tax disclosure law

The final thrust of Canada-U.S.. tax treaty negotiations is triggering fears among bankers on this side of the border that they will be dragged into helping out on an American hunt for tax cheats — and passing along information about Canadians to U.S. tax authorities

A Fact Findg Forum on FATCA will be held in Toronto.  Everyone nearby should consider attending this rally.  Here is the announcement:

The Federal PC Party (Progressive Canadian) of Canada is calling ALL CANADIANS (Liberals, NDP, Conservatives, ordinary citizens, et al) to stand on guard for Canada and Canadian sovereignty!

Plan to attend a Fact Finding Forum to preserve Canadian sovereignty and keep Canada a free and independent nation!

 

Who: The Honourable Sinclair Stevens, Federal PC Party leader, Party President Dorian Baxter and others

Where: University of  Toronto – Room TBA (click for updates)

When: Saturday December 15, 2012 – 9:30 a.m. – 5:00 p.m.

Continue reading →

A Swiss-American woman who has had an account at the Banque Cantonale Vaudoise (BCV) for decades is being forced to close the account before end of December.   Aged 65, she receives her Swiss social security and disability payments in the account, and uses the account to pay her Swiss health insurance premiums.

Article (in French):  http://www.lematin.ch/suisse/bcv-supprime/story/16464128

The article says that she is being forced to close because she does not live in Switzerland.  But how can she draw her pension to which she has the right?!

I describe this in more detail at the Overseas Exile blog, but here’s the issue in a nutshell.

For the first three quarters of this year the Federal Register has reported a little over 1,000 renunciations. However, one Swiss site reports that the US embassy in Switzerland has processed 411 US renunciations. This would mean that Switzerland, with somewhere between 2 to 5% of the world’s US expats, is reporting over 40% of the US renunciations. Perhaps the US expats in Switzerland have more wealth, but that 40% seems ridiculous.

However, Fox News has a story where unnamed “immigration officials” report a projected 8,000 US renunciations this year. If true, Switzerland will have approximately 5% of the world’s renunciations, a figure which makes much more sense.

So, how do we find out who these immigration officials are? Where did they get their numbers? Why is every indicator suggesting that US renunciations are increasing but the Federal Register reports that they’re way decreasing?