Thanks for this article as it is providing an education on what these issues mean for US Expats and USA competitiveness. Just the export trade imbalance story related to bad citizenship TAX policy is something you would think would interest someone at the WSJ or NYT at a minimum, but alas, no. In fact, given what I have seen about Obama’s new Corporate tax policy proposals he may be going in the opposite direction and subjecting these super persons to a “citizenship” like tax on their foreign which they are now exempt from until they expatriate them. (Real persons don’t get that excemption) Wonder if they will need to get a passport now… I joke.  The 3 year IRS jihad against offshore accounts does not come without many unintended consequences that sadly, given the media climate, political campaigns, mischaracterized headlines, disingenuous IRS press releases, subject complexity and attention span of “Real Americans”, you don’t get much MSM coverage. I am still surprised that after all all this time, if you go to a website like NPR, PBS, PRI or specific sites like Market place or Planet Money and search for FATCA nothing comes up. FBAR nothing. The message is clear in the public supported media ….Not interested.  Try similar searches on NBC, CBS, FOX, and ABC and see what you get. The most returns are at MSNBC (with mischaracterized headlines), nothing on CBS. Fox asks did I mean FATWA? LOL. On ABC there is a link to one story from Dec 14, 2011  Regarding the new reciprocal agreement that the IRS announced recently. There is one possible chink in that FATCA 5 nation proposal. There is opposition in Congress to the regulatory change that the IRS has unilaterally proposed in March, which would require all US Banks to report non resident interest to the IRS. Presumably, this was done so it could turn over that data to the tax authorities of 192 countries around the world, or at least these 5 partners. The IRS was probably setting the wheels in motion so it would have something to trade in FATCA negotiations. Congress passed FATCA buried in the Hire Act, and the IRS thought, “what is good for the goose, is good for the gander”, so let’s impose similar requirements on US banks. I am sure France, Germany, Spain, Italy and the UK would love to get this info, as the biggest Tax shelter haven in the world is the US of A.  I don’t know if your comment section allows links, so I won’t chance putting them in. If readers or you are interested in this opposition I would suggest that they google these four titles…  1. Second Letter to Secretary Geithner on IRS Reporting Regulation  2. Congressman Tells IRS to Back off on Bank Disclosures  3. Florida delegation implores Obama: Hands off foreign deposits in U.S. banks  4. TEXT OF THE FATCA COMMENT LETTER SUBMITTED BY BLAINE LUETKEMEYER, RON PAUL, JOHN CAMPBELL, AND DONALD MANZULLO, MEMBERS OF CONGRESS  Not sure any of these will have any impact, but I also hear via the grapevine that Senators Rubio (Florida) and Cornyn (Texas) were going to try to introduce a rider onto the transportation bill to block the ability of U.S. financial institutions to report on holdings of non-resident aliens in their banks to the IRS. We shall see what comes of it. So, maybe this battle isn’t over until the Fat Lady sings…  Anyway, thanks again for continuing to shine the light on an otherwise dimly lit subject…
Image via colourbox.com U.S. citizens and permanent residents pay tax to the IRS on their worldwide income. Of late, that rule has gotten many into hot water.  American expats living abroad have been hit especially hard, as have dual U.S. and Canadian citizens. See U.S. Tax Crackdown Hits Canadian Residents. See Expats Call For FATCA Repeal. In [...]