Posted on 06/30/2018 7:21:58 PM PDT by Zhang Fei
Admittedly, living abroad as an American has always made for a complicated tax situation.
That is because the United States is one of the only countries to tax based on citizenship, not residency.
And the U.S. government has tightened its rules in recent years to make it more difficult for Americans to evade taxes by hiding money offshore.
For Americans who reside in foreign countries, that can make it more difficult to find financial institutions who will let them open accounts.
Swanson experienced those restrictions first hand when he was denied a bank account.
“It wasn’t anything personal or even discriminatory as far as nationality,” Swanson said. “It was our own government that set up penalties for them to deal with us.”
Americans overseas often face a complex filing regimen.
Swanson received another shock when he found out he was behind on tax filing requirements he did not know about.
“It was in the tens of thousands of dollars to get caught up,” Swanson said.
He did not actually owe much in taxes because he had been living in Germany, a high-tax country, which offset what he owed to the U.S. Most of that money went to the cost of the paperwork and accounting fees.
Americans are renouncing citizenship at a steady rate, thanks to laws that were put in place earlier this decade.
In the first quarter of this year, 1,099 Americans gave up their citizenship, according to data from the Internal Revenue Service. More than 5,000 citizens living overseas gave up their U.S. passports in both 2017 and 2016.
“Americans living abroad face a number of tax complications that folks living at home probably have never heard about,” said David McKeegan, co-founder of Greenback Expat Tax Services.
(Excerpt) Read more at cnbc.com ...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foreign_Account_Tax_Compliance_Act
http://kluwertaxblog.com/2017/04/18/15527/
I think that’s good right?
And 6 billion would willingly take their place. Why is that?
If they give up their citizenship and don’t tell the local precinct, they can still vote absentee for the Democratic candidate, right?
Wait, so you mean after we kick out all these people who thought their anchor babies would be their meal ticket, we can still tax the kids? Yes!
Interesting how carefully the article avoids mentioning that it was the Obama administration that passed this abomination.
I vote for Lorie Konish to be the next one out the door.
Only six billion? There’s been that many, so called, Hollywood stars that have threatened that. Besides, they are coming in faster than these broken promise people have identified themselves. But, being more realisitic, is it a toss-up. Do I want to trade 6 billion loud mouthed, problem children that bitch about everything they can get and not do anything in return, or do I want to accept their leaving and get them replaced by hiding people that many times earn their keep trying to be productive and try to stay under the radar by paying their taxes and not all doing other crimes? Need time to think.......
rwood
“And 6 billion would willingly take their place. Why is that?”
Money. They see America as a piggy bank to rob. Nothing more. They hate everything about us. I’ve lost count of the number of Indians that have gained US citizenship only to be embarrassed by it. They treat us as a paycheck because the low IQ idiots have destroyed their own nations.
Not so long ago banks around the world were FALLING ALL OVER THEMSELVES to pursue depositors from the USA.
THEN came the new IRS vigilance of the Obama Admin; suddenly American citizens were treated like kids in need of a really good spanking.
The IRS went to all the major banks and said:
“We’re going to impose onerous reporting requirements on you, requiring you to fink to us regarding all your American depositors. If we discover you haven’t complied..? We’ll fine you 30% of ALL your transactions that touched the US banking system in ANY way...!”
Probably more than HALF of all world banking transactions touch the USA in some way:
The potential fines seemd to foreign bankers to reach the MOON.
The easier path..?
Simply ban any account from US passport holders over some really paltry sum.
The result is that Americans abroad are viewed by foreign bankers as AIDS-having LEPERS.
This all started cuz a Jewish banker with US/Swiss dual citizenship got into hot water with charges of major fraud. He made US authorities an offer:
“Let me off the hook and I’ll give you a secret list of ALL Americans with secret banks accounts in Switzerland.”
That perp..?
He also got a cut of ALL funds recovered —his total was over $100 million bucks.
Love it or leave it.
I don’t know about that banker story. This all started with Bush trying to stop US citizens’ funding of terrorists, laundering drug money, and trying to hide arms and dual-use product sales. The Swiss caved and gave up a bunch of depositors. Obama followed up with reporting requirements for foreign banks for transactions with US citizens. A lot of foreign banks found that too onerous and just ended business with Americans, whether or not they were US or foreign residents.
The tax requirements themselves haven’t changed much, although the foreign earned income limit has been raised, which actually helps expats. Most of the complaining in this story sounds like people starting a business without looking into the tax and filing requirements first.
When you live abroad, you realize just how much Fed.gov views you as their slave. You don’t notice in the USA because their control is so complete
It also makes you a Pariah as no foreign financial firms or banks want to deal with you
#6. Either a “MAKE NEWS USINGS FAKE NEWS” article or a totally biased piece/author long planned.
[It also makes you a Pariah as no foreign financial firms or banks want to deal with you]
I lived in the UK back in the seventies. As I had a high compensation package my UK taxes were obscene to say the least. My company took what I would have been taxed in Houston, Texas and paid the difference to the UK government.
It was not a small amount. That was the company policy. When I lived in Oman with relatively small taxation they still withheld the same amount. It was very fair for the employees of this international company. All of us paid the same based on tax burdens based on Houston, Texas.
Winning.
Only if the hollywood libtards who say they will leave and maybe gve up citizenship, would have morals to do what tgey say they will do.
Why is CNBC writing this story now? This story was relevant years ago.
If anything, tax reform encourages expats to repatriate their money.
Article is not making sense in today’s context.
Yeah, but the Obama Administration wasn’t smart enough to think it up. FATCA was a Deep State wish list item, snuck past a clueless Congress in an unrelated bill which was signed by the puppet President. It was the GOP leadership who should have fought it loudly - except that a bunch of foolish nativists agreed with its central premise that expat citizens are traitors by definition.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.