08/02/2016
FATCA, the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act, was a law passed in 2010 as part of a federal post-2008 financial crisis drive to crack down on tax cheats hiding their money abroad. An unintended consequence though has been the government both snooping on and increasing the tax burden on the estimated 9 million ordinary Americans […]
05/24/2016
With the election now less than six months away, the shortlist for the 45th President is down to just three – Bernie Sanders, Hilary Clinton, and Donald Trump. Most people agree that it’s an unusual field, to say the least. It’s been said that that the number of Americans living abroad (estimates range from seven […]
05/03/2016
(The following article was first published over at iexpats.com). A judge has thrown out a case from a US senator leading a campaign against the controversial Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA). Senator Rand Paul and several other campaigners filed suits against government departments in a bid to derail the law that demands foreign banks […]
03/08/2016
American Citizens Abroad (ACA), which lobbies on behalf of US expats, has teamed up with the State Department Federal Credit Union (SDFCU) to offer banking services to US expats. Since the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) began compelling foreign banks to report their American account holders or face significant penalties if they trade in […]
02/08/2016
Hidden inside a highway funding bill that Congress is expected to pass later this month, is a measure that will give the State Department the ability to revoke the passports (or deny their renewal) of people who are behind on their taxes, the Wall Street Journal recently reported. The new law will affect people who […]
02/08/2016
Following recent disclosure that the IRS will soon have the ability to revoke passports of US citizens who owe more than $50,000 of back taxes, fines and interest, we thought it was an opportune moment to take a look at what information the IRS is collecting on Americans living abroad. Historically, the IRS relied on […]
02/08/2016
Many of our clients confess to some confusion (or lots!) about whether they have to complete Form 8938, FinCEN Form 114, or both, so we’d like to shed some light on the situation. What are they? IRS Form 8938 is required under the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act or FATCA for reporting assets held abroad. […]
02/08/2016
Currently, an estimated nine million Americans are living abroad. The majority have accounts at foreign banks, and many of them are now receiving letters from their banks asking for their US tax identification numbers. Some are also asking their American clients to certify that they are current with their US tax filings. FATCA, the […]
02/08/2016
Every three months, the state department publishes how many people renounced their citizenship in that quarter. The most recent figure is 1426, which is a new record. To put that into context, in 2008, just 235 people renounced their US citizenship in the whole year. The number has been steadily rising since, with last year […]
02/08/2016
The following is an excerpt from ‘An American Tax Nightmare’, published in the New York Times. No one likes tax cheats. They should be pursued and punished wherever they are hiding. But recent efforts by the United States Congress to capture tax revenues on unreported revenues and assets held in foreign accounts are having disastrous […]