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BuzzFeed had a series of articles about a number of suspicious deaths of Russian expats who had fallen out with Putin or otherwise were persona non grata. Appar

BuzzFeed had a series of articles about a number of suspicious deaths of Russian expats who had fallen out with Putin or otherwise were persona non grata. Apparently the Home Office / upper echelons of the police were dragging their heels in investigating them - the general conspiracy theory is no one in the UK government really wants the flow of money from Russian oligarchs that is propping up the London property market to dry up. Tie that with May's speech sometime ago (little reported on) that the UK needs to be "better friends" with Russia (and this was _after_ Salisbury)... With this and Brexit and everything else, I really want out of this country. But then I'd have to move back to the US. As for the FBAR, it is annoying, but at least only tedious and not onerous. I will never have enough money to really justify having to fill out these forms - and the people who really ought to are the ones with enough to hire the specialists to hide it from the US government.

kingosticks 7y ago
The FBAR limit is pretty low, around $10k isn't it? Once over that limit, are you really saying you could skip filing it on the basis of not having much money? The FACTA limit is much higher, most people wouldn't need to do that one.
- dfraser992 7y ago
  It is low - my initial take was this law was written in the 1970s when US expats were rare and only the really wealthy lived overseas. I was thinking of the people I've read about who had 100k etc stashed in Swiss bank accounts and the like. The problem is the potential fines if you get caught not filling out the forms - I forget the exact numbers, but it's like 50% of the balance (or all your assets?) and a fixed fine ... It is pretty much an attempt to borderline bankrupt you. In reality, however, enforcement is lax - the IRS is getting decimated thanks to Trump and co. and so going after the small fry is not cost effective. High profile cases, e.g. Boris Johnson who has American citizenship, are just as much for PR purposes as enforcing the law. The IRS went after him because he was selling his house, something like that, and so it was profitable to get him for avoiding US tax law.
  - thisone 7y ago
    indeed, the penalties for not filing or even making an honest mistake on the FBAR are severe. The FBAR is not under the IRS for the enforcement though, it's FinCEN.
  - kingosticks 7y ago
    I think the Borris one was more for PR rather than being financially profitable. It was for less than £100k if I remember correctly. Surely there are much bigger fish to fry out there.
  - a_humean 7y ago
    I'm no fan of Johnson, but he did absolutely nothing wrong in that case, and his personal connection to the US was very weak. He renounced his citizenship shortly after that episode as are record numbers of very ordinary (income wise) Americans abroad since FACTA was introduced. The IRS makes overseas compliance for ordinary and accidental (just happening to be born on US soil, but otherwise no connection) American citizens very difficult and opaque, and the penalties are extraordinarily disproportionate when most of the time they usually owe absolutely nothing to US tax authorities other than paperwork. It also makes access to financial products for American citizens and ex-citizens abroad difficult because local banks don't want to risk dealing with the millions on non-compliant citizens because they also face very high penalties for providing services to non-compliant citizens. Essentially no other country taxes on the basis of citizenship instead of residency, and they are making a pig's ear of it.
  - johnnycab 7y ago
    >Boris Johnson who has American citizenship, are just as much for PR purposes as enforcing the law. He renounced his American citizenship, also mentioned by another commenter, over the matter you described i.e. US Tax ($50k+) for sale of his home in the UK. https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2017/feb/08/boris-johnson-renounces-us-citizenship-record-2016-uk-foreign-secretary https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2017/feb/08/boris-johns...
- thraxil 7y ago
  Yeah, FBAR is about $10k. FATCA/8938 threshold is $50k last I checked. As an American living abroad, it's kind of annoying. Filing the FBAR only takes a couple minutes though. You basically enter basic account info (bank, country, etc) and the max balance that it had during the year. It's like half a page. If you are over the $50k threshold and need to file an 8938, you probably have income abroad as well and are already having to pay a tax attorney/accountant to handle your taxes for you. Again, annoying but workable. Honestly, the simple fact that as a US citizen, I always have to file taxes in the US no matter where I live or get my income, is the bigger pain. FBAR/FATCA stuff is like 5% of the total bureaucratic BS that expats have to deal with. The more annoying part of FATCA is that because the banks also have to report back to the IRS, many non-US banks just refuse to allow US citizens to open accounts. That has more of an impact because it limits where you can bank and will affect things like buying property.
  - kingosticks 7y ago
    For an American living abroad the FATCA threshold is much higher, 200k or something. I've (sadly?) never had to file it which I appreciate since I do my own taxes. I've also personally never had a problem getting a bank account in the UK but I was concerned about that when shopping around for a mortgage. But I do appreciate it is worse elsewhere (Spain apparently) and it might get worse in the UK. Plenty of reasons to renounce.
  - Scoundreller 7y ago
    Those are just the easy parts. Things get more complex when you own a non-US ETF or mutual fund. Now you own a passive income trust that’s treated differently, with its own reporting requirements. It can also be a headache to take advantage of your country’s non-retirement tax-advantaged savings programs (e.g.: Canada’s TFSA) Or if you’re a director of a corporation, like being a board member of the building you live in. It’s also headaches for a condominium if a US citizen becomes a board member, which they usually can’t stop because they were voted in. If their old bank didn’t want to deal with US persons, now they have to hang everything over to someone that does.
nicoburns 7y ago
> no one in the UK government really wants the flow of money from Russian oligarchs that is propping up the London property market to dry up. London residents (at least those of us without property) certainly do!
- lmm 7y ago
  Sadly the property-owning demographic votes a lot more than the non-property-owning one.
  - n4r9 7y ago
    That's probably true for the UK as a whole but I'd be surprised if the politically engaged metropolitan young professional demographic didn't have a much larger presence in London specifically.
Tycho 7y ago
But do you actually believe the official version of events for Salisbury?

kingosticks 7y ago

The FBAR limit is pretty low, around $10k isn't it? Once over that limit, are you really saying you could skip filing it on the basis of not having much money? The FACTA limit is much higher, most people wouldn't need to do that one.

dfraser992 7y ago
It is low - my initial take was this law was written in the 1970s when US expats were rare and only the really wealthy lived overseas. I was thinking of the people I've read about who had 100k etc stashed in Swiss bank accounts and the like. The problem is the potential fines if you get caught not filling out the forms - I forget the exact numbers, but it's like 50% of the balance (or all your assets?) and a fixed fine ... It is pretty much an attempt to borderline bankrupt you. In reality, however, enforcement is lax - the IRS is getting decimated thanks to Trump and co. and so going after the small fry is not cost effective. High profile cases, e.g. Boris Johnson who has American citizenship, are just as much for PR purposes as enforcing the law. The IRS went after him because he was selling his house, something like that, and so it was profitable to get him for avoiding US tax law.
- thisone 7y ago
  indeed, the penalties for not filing or even making an honest mistake on the FBAR are severe. The FBAR is not under the IRS for the enforcement though, it's FinCEN.
- kingosticks 7y ago
  I think the Borris one was more for PR rather than being financially profitable. It was for less than £100k if I remember correctly. Surely there are much bigger fish to fry out there.
- a_humean 7y ago
  I'm no fan of Johnson, but he did absolutely nothing wrong in that case, and his personal connection to the US was very weak. He renounced his citizenship shortly after that episode as are record numbers of very ordinary (income wise) Americans abroad since FACTA was introduced. The IRS makes overseas compliance for ordinary and accidental (just happening to be born on US soil, but otherwise no connection) American citizens very difficult and opaque, and the penalties are extraordinarily disproportionate when most of the time they usually owe absolutely nothing to US tax authorities other than paperwork. It also makes access to financial products for American citizens and ex-citizens abroad difficult because local banks don't want to risk dealing with the millions on non-compliant citizens because they also face very high penalties for providing services to non-compliant citizens. Essentially no other country taxes on the basis of citizenship instead of residency, and they are making a pig's ear of it.
- johnnycab 7y ago
  >Boris Johnson who has American citizenship, are just as much for PR purposes as enforcing the law. He renounced his American citizenship, also mentioned by another commenter, over the matter you described i.e. US Tax ($50k+) for sale of his home in the UK. https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2017/feb/08/boris-johnson-renounces-us-citizenship-record-2016-uk-foreign-secretary https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2017/feb/08/boris-johns...
thraxil 7y ago
Yeah, FBAR is about $10k. FATCA/8938 threshold is $50k last I checked. As an American living abroad, it's kind of annoying. Filing the FBAR only takes a couple minutes though. You basically enter basic account info (bank, country, etc) and the max balance that it had during the year. It's like half a page. If you are over the $50k threshold and need to file an 8938, you probably have income abroad as well and are already having to pay a tax attorney/accountant to handle your taxes for you. Again, annoying but workable. Honestly, the simple fact that as a US citizen, I always have to file taxes in the US no matter where I live or get my income, is the bigger pain. FBAR/FATCA stuff is like 5% of the total bureaucratic BS that expats have to deal with. The more annoying part of FATCA is that because the banks also have to report back to the IRS, many non-US banks just refuse to allow US citizens to open accounts. That has more of an impact because it limits where you can bank and will affect things like buying property.
- kingosticks 7y ago
  For an American living abroad the FATCA threshold is much higher, 200k or something. I've (sadly?) never had to file it which I appreciate since I do my own taxes. I've also personally never had a problem getting a bank account in the UK but I was concerned about that when shopping around for a mortgage. But I do appreciate it is worse elsewhere (Spain apparently) and it might get worse in the UK. Plenty of reasons to renounce.
- Scoundreller 7y ago
  Those are just the easy parts. Things get more complex when you own a non-US ETF or mutual fund. Now you own a passive income trust that’s treated differently, with its own reporting requirements. It can also be a headache to take advantage of your country’s non-retirement tax-advantaged savings programs (e.g.: Canada’s TFSA) Or if you’re a director of a corporation, like being a board member of the building you live in. It’s also headaches for a condominium if a US citizen becomes a board member, which they usually can’t stop because they were voted in. If their old bank didn’t want to deal with US persons, now they have to hang everything over to someone that does.

nicoburns 7y ago

> no one in the UK government really wants the flow of money from Russian oligarchs that is propping up the London property market to dry up. London residents (at least those of us without property) certainly do!

lmm 7y ago
Sadly the property-owning demographic votes a lot more than the non-property-owning one.
- n4r9 7y ago
  That's probably true for the UK as a whole but I'd be surprised if the politically engaged metropolitan young professional demographic didn't have a much larger presence in London specifically.

Tycho 7y ago

But do you actually believe the official version of events for Salisbury?