The Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) imposed a worldwide financial disclosure information regime on every financial institution in the world, it is an international nightmare.
The Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) imposed a worldwide financial disclosure information regime on every financial institution in the world, it is an international nightmare.
There are several major problems with FATCA which are widely discussed and debated. Read more
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As the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) steps up efforts to find delinquent taxpayers around the world, U.S. expats are being forced to complete more and more forms to comply with the U.S. tax obligations. The introduction of the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) has provided even more strength to the Read more
If you are a regular reader of my blog ~ you know the tax geek that I am, I write a lot about tax compliance for foreign bank account holders and the effect of the FATCA. FATCA stands for Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act. Calling a spade a “large digging instrument”, we know this law is one-sided and forces other countries to enforce US tax laws. And if they fail to comply, they are effectively locked out of US markets and the US dollar ~ the “world currency” for now.
Countries that sign the FATCA Agreement or Inter Governmental Agreement (IGA) are considered tax compliant. This means the banks/ foreign financial institutions (FFI) in these countries send information as demanded by the IRS to their own tax authorities which is then shared with the IRS. This is “Model 1”. Read more
Kentucky Senator and 2016 Republican Presidential hopeful Rand Paul recently announced that, in partnership with Republicans Overseas and five others, he would head to court to stop the vile Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act crackdown. At the risk of comparing the noted Republitarian/Libripublican figure with a certain single-cell cartoon villain, the effort may turn out like the video below.
The lawsuit, which was filed in an Ohio federal court, actually contains some pretty good arguments. In any other environment, this lawsuit might go somewhere. But they say that timing is everything, and the timing is just all wrong.
Well, so much for honor among thieves, at least as the U.S. government defines the t-word. Swiss bankers felt they had no choice but to violate the two greatest things in life (select “Read More” to see video clip). But this time, the allegations were quite a bit more serious than selling cigarettes without a retail permit, and there was no grinning mob lawyer to make the whole thing go away. They compiled a list of alleged tax violators and then published that list, both in the Swiss federal newspaper and on the Internet.
Since 1934, Switzerland’s banking privacy law has made it a magnet for foreign accounts and a story element in countless film noires. But judges and lawmakers have been chipping away at the law for a number of decades, and according to some observers, near-relentless pressure from the government’s six-year Foreign Account Tax Read more
After the IRS shouted “Dracarys” in 2010, the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) breathed fire on American taxpayers, causing more chaos than the destruction immortalized in the Rains of Castamere. The law mandates that U.S. citizens, including those residing outside the country, report their financial accounts outside the U.S. The IRS didn’t stop there; using its network of spiders, the IRS is compelling global non-U.S. financial institutions to report any U.S. persons on their books to the U.S. Treasury.
As you can see, there’s no way out of this mess. However, some people try tricking the IRS, Read more
Individuals who are required to report interests in foreign financial assets to the IRS got guidance on the process in the form of final regulations on Thursday (T.D. 9706). The regulations finalize temporary regulations (T.D. 9567) issued in 2011, with some changes.
Sec. 6038D, enacted as part of the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act, requires individuals to report interests in specified foreign financial assets (SFFAs) when filing their federal income tax returns for tax years beginning after March 18, 2010, using Form 8938, Statement of Specified Foreign Financial Assets. SFFAs include, among other things, interests in:
• Foreign bank and financial accounts; Read more
Since July 1, 2014, the most feared U.S. legislation regarding international tax enforcement – Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (“FATCA”) – is being implemented by most banks around the world. As part of this compliance, foreign banks from around the world are sending letters to account holders that they believe have, or had, a U.S. tax nexus (or other U.S. connection) requesting information to determine whether such account holders have disclosed their foreign bank accounts to the IRS. The letters from foreign banks generally require an account holder to disclose whether the account has been declared to the IRS through the filing of a Report of Foreign Bank and Financial Read more
South American countries have many reasons to be jealous of the United States. Most days, we have stable federal government. Our standard of living is mind-blowing for many people in impoverished countries. They view us as the land of opportunity. We argue about our health care system, but almost everyone gets the care they need. Add to all this, with FATCA we have found a very effective way to bully foreign governments and financial institutions into giving us previously unobtainable information on U.S. taxpayers. This allows the IRS to make sure they are collecting every possible dollar from U.S. taxpayers who have offshore assets.
In the not too distant past, wealthy Americans and wannabe wealthy Americans found it Read more
It is the most dreaded letter a taxpayer can receive.
Dear Taxpayer,
Some of the information that you provided to us does not agree with the information we received from other sources.
— The Internal Revenue Service Read more
“If FATCA were a Greek God, it would be Zeus, ruler of heaven and earth, throwing lightning bolts at the ground and causing it to shake with such fury as a Magnitude 10 earthquake.”
–Anonymous critic of FATCA
What is this law that has become the subject of such heated debate and that is loathed so much?
Let’s begin with some basics. FATCA stands for “Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act.” FATCA is America’s global tax law. It was quietly enacted in 2010, and after four years of fine-tuning, is now in effect. What is most amazing about this law is not the impact that it Read more
Is Ottawa violating Canadians’ constitutional rights to help the U.S. collect taxes? According to two Ontario women, it is.
Two women are suing the Canadian government over a controversial deal in which Canada has agreed to share the tax information of U.S. persons who are Canadian residents with the IRS.
On its face, the deal may seem to be nothing extraordinary. In practice, however, the costs to privacy, autonomy, and Canadian sovereignty of complying with the United States’ Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) are sweeping. At America’s behest, Canada must share tax information even about Canadians who have never lived a day of Read more
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