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>Her voice cracks and her eyes well up. She is in the process of relinquishing her American nationality. Soon she'll visit the US embassy formally to renounce h

>Her voice cracks and her eyes well up. She is in the process of relinquishing her American nationality. Soon she'll visit the US embassy formally to renounce her citizenship, she says, under duress. >"I'm very proud of being an American. It's what I am when I look in the mirror. >"If it weren't for Fatca [the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act] and the decision by the bank, I'd never be doing this. Never ever. It's just breaking me in half." Caterwauling by the 1%.

lokedhs 11y ago
It can be a huge hassle for normal US citizens living outside the US. Most banks won't deal with them because of the risks involved. As a US citizen abroad, just getting a regular bank account can be next to impossible. I live in Singapore and when I was signing up for a stock trading account I asked what would have happened if I had to answer yes in the box that asked if I was liable to pay income tax in the US. The answer was plain: "you wouldn't be allowed to have an account with us".
- crdoconnor 11y ago
  I lived in Singapore for 3 years and managed without a stock trading account. It's one of the easiest places to open a bank account, actually.
  - zrail 11y ago
    This is a recent development. How long ago were you in Singapore?
  - lokedhs 11y ago
    I wasn't clear. I asked the question when I was signing up for a trading account, but the question was about normal accounts. Thus was at DBS which is the largest consumer bank in Singapore.
ascorbic 11y ago
" Jane has lived and worked in France for 30 years drawing what she calls a "humble" salary. She has filed a tax return every year even though she earns significantly less than $106,000 a year." Hardly the 1%
- crdoconnor 11y ago
  She isn't the reason this article appeared in the BBC (it's effectively a reprinted press release, cf. Paul Graham's submarine). She also earns a good salary and is dropping citizenship basically in order not to have to fill out a form once a year. Either that or she's expecting a pay raise from her "humble" salary and will have to start paying a small amount of US tax. Either way, my sympathy dial isn't moving.
  - Ovid 11y ago
    You are completely wrong and people with your attitude are part of the reason we expats are suffering. Studies repeatedly show that that that majority of almost 8 million Americans living abroad moved to look for work, to find love, explore the world, do volunteer work, teach, and so on. We're largely middle class, just like most Americans back home. We're not rich (many of us teaching or volunteering are dirt poor), but we're putting up with a tax horror that Americans back home would revolt over if they had to endure it.
  - to3m 11y ago
    It sounds more as if she is having difficulty getting access to banking facilities on account of the additional reporting requirements the US insists on.
  - ascorbic 11y ago
    None of that puts her in the 1%. If she cared that much about tax she wouldn't be living in France. If you read the article you'd see it's because these people are having their bank accounts closed, or being unable to open them because of the onerous restrictions that Fatca puts on banks with expat American customers.
  - plcancel 11y ago
cpursley 11y ago
The US State Department's own numbers show that it is not the 1% relinquishing citizenship, It's normal Americans living and working overseas for long periods of time. These people are prevented from basic logistics required for having a life like opening and using a checking account. I think of it this way: how insane would it be if my wife, a Russian citizen and US permanent resident who's lived and worked in the US for 12 years, could not open a checking account and was required by law to file taxes to the Russian Federation for her American high school teaching job?
anothermouse 11y ago
You are, seemingly deliberately, failing to understand that this isn't a 1% problem. The 1% have tax advisors and CPAs paid to take care of this for them. This is affecting expats and accidental americans in their daily lives, even if they have no income. I am not the first to suggest it, but reread the article, and image that you earn $30K and live in france, and for some reason you're account is being closed, and you need to spend 1K post tax a year filing for a country you don't live in.
- spiralpolitik 11y ago
  The simple solution would be to synchronize FBAR and FACTA to use the same reporting amount as this would remove the vast majority of people from having to report. $10K is far to low given exchange rates. $50K-$100K or higher would probably be a more realistic number.
  - anothermouse 11y ago
    My other comment (in reply to another comment) shows how I, a brit, have gotten myself into a problem with far more that 100K, without having any idea. The best option would be same country exemption for FBAR and FACTA. Or stop taxing non-resident citizens.
dang 11y ago
Please don't post comments like this. HN is for thoughtful discussion, not ideological venting.

lokedhs 11y ago

It can be a huge hassle for normal US citizens living outside the US. Most banks won't deal with them because of the risks involved. As a US citizen abroad, just getting a regular bank account can be next to impossible. I live in Singapore and when I was signing up for a stock trading account I asked what would have happened if I had to answer yes in the box that asked if I was liable to pay income tax in the US. The answer was plain: "you wouldn't be allowed to have an account with us".

crdoconnor 11y ago
I lived in Singapore for 3 years and managed without a stock trading account. It's one of the easiest places to open a bank account, actually.
- zrail 11y ago
  This is a recent development. How long ago were you in Singapore?
- lokedhs 11y ago
  I wasn't clear. I asked the question when I was signing up for a trading account, but the question was about normal accounts. Thus was at DBS which is the largest consumer bank in Singapore.

ascorbic 11y ago

" Jane has lived and worked in France for 30 years drawing what she calls a "humble" salary. She has filed a tax return every year even though she earns significantly less than $106,000 a year." Hardly the 1%

crdoconnor 11y ago
She isn't the reason this article appeared in the BBC (it's effectively a reprinted press release, cf. Paul Graham's submarine). She also earns a good salary and is dropping citizenship basically in order not to have to fill out a form once a year. Either that or she's expecting a pay raise from her "humble" salary and will have to start paying a small amount of US tax. Either way, my sympathy dial isn't moving.
- Ovid 11y ago
  You are completely wrong and people with your attitude are part of the reason we expats are suffering. Studies repeatedly show that that that majority of almost 8 million Americans living abroad moved to look for work, to find love, explore the world, do volunteer work, teach, and so on. We're largely middle class, just like most Americans back home. We're not rich (many of us teaching or volunteering are dirt poor), but we're putting up with a tax horror that Americans back home would revolt over if they had to endure it.
- to3m 11y ago
  It sounds more as if she is having difficulty getting access to banking facilities on account of the additional reporting requirements the US insists on.
- ascorbic 11y ago
  None of that puts her in the 1%. If she cared that much about tax she wouldn't be living in France. If you read the article you'd see it's because these people are having their bank accounts closed, or being unable to open them because of the onerous restrictions that Fatca puts on banks with expat American customers.
- plcancel 11y ago

cpursley 11y ago

The US State Department's own numbers show that it is not the 1% relinquishing citizenship, It's normal Americans living and working overseas for long periods of time. These people are prevented from basic logistics required for having a life like opening and using a checking account. I think of it this way: how insane would it be if my wife, a Russian citizen and US permanent resident who's lived and worked in the US for 12 years, could not open a checking account and was required by law to file taxes to the Russian Federation for her American high school teaching job?

anothermouse 11y ago

You are, seemingly deliberately, failing to understand that this isn't a 1% problem. The 1% have tax advisors and CPAs paid to take care of this for them. This is affecting expats and accidental americans in their daily lives, even if they have no income. I am not the first to suggest it, but reread the article, and image that you earn $30K and live in france, and for some reason you're account is being closed, and you need to spend 1K post tax a year filing for a country you don't live in.

spiralpolitik 11y ago
The simple solution would be to synchronize FBAR and FACTA to use the same reporting amount as this would remove the vast majority of people from having to report. $10K is far to low given exchange rates. $50K-$100K or higher would probably be a more realistic number.
- anothermouse 11y ago
  My other comment (in reply to another comment) shows how I, a brit, have gotten myself into a problem with far more that 100K, without having any idea. The best option would be same country exemption for FBAR and FACTA. Or stop taxing non-resident citizens.

dang 11y ago

Please don't post comments like this. HN is for thoughtful discussion, not ideological venting.