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Replying before reading the article just wastes everyone's time. PS - The answers to all of these questions is contained within the article.

Aloisius 13y ago
I read the article. It talks about Facta and then tries to link it to people complaining about how expensive it is to file tax returns, but the two aren't linked unless you weren't reporting your real income. Americans have always had to file taxes while living abroad. The tax laws have been extremely complicated for decades. Facta isn't changing that. FTA: "Fatca provisions impose no new obligations on US citizens living abroad... US taxpayers, including US citizens living abroad, are required to comply with US tax laws," he says. No, this sounds more like people who might have fudged some numbers now worrying that the IRS is going to find out and realizing that their citizenship isn't worth the yearly bill.
- Lewisham 13y ago
  It said that people were not so worried about making sure their tax return was exactly correct. Now they are, so you need to hire better tax lawyers than you did before. I take exception to your characterization of "fudging numbers". We all fudge the numbers of our tax returns, even when filing in the US. How many people really do anything but use TurboTax and hope for the best? I know I do. I can't possibly know everything about US tax law. I hope TurboTax does, but I have no guarantee, and it's my ass on the line if it screws up. I see no difference between that and the expats mentioned in the article, except the help they have to buy in is far more expensive.
- auctiontheory 13y ago
  It became so complicated to do her tax return that she turned to professionals, at an annual cost of nearly $2,000 (£1,250), with the prospect of Fatca raising the price to $5,000. Also, fewer tax lawyers were taking on American clients, she says, and some banks were even turning away American money. I don't see any mention of tax-dodging in the paragraph above. Which part of paying $2000 (and maybe soon $5000) to file taxes, and banks turning away American customers, don't you understand?
  - Aloisius 13y ago
    See this is what I don't understand. Facta does not change tax law. It should have no bearing on the cost of having your taxes done. You already had to declare foreign bank accounts to the IRS, so really all the law is doing is getting them declared automatically. Now fewer tax lawyers certainly will raise costs, but that has nothing to do with Facta.
    - BlobbleBlab 13y ago
      What it changes is that it requires (non-US) banks to keep track of which of their accounts are owned or co-owned by someone who may have a (dual) US citizenship, and may have made an error in their tax returns, or risk having some of their US assets seized. Some banks just prefer not to take the risk. The non resident citizen tax returns can become very complicated in the situation where the non resident US citizen is married to a non resident foreigner. The tax forms don't even support this configuration - the spouse must have a social security number. The foreign spouse must then apply for a special "non resident alien" social security number, for the special purpose of being able to file taxes in a country they are not even allowed to enter without a visa. And how exactly do you determine the value of your shared assets in dollars? Have you made capital gain every time the dollar fluctuates against the local currency? Since we bought our home, our property has dropped significantly in value in the currency we earn our wages in, but theoretically gained a bit in dollars, so how can we be sure this doesn't add up to exceed $50,000? The only way to be sure is to hire an expert figure it out for you, for several thousand $. They are now charging more for their services because of the higher risks and responsibilities involved. The net amount we have to pay in that country one of us isn't allowed to enter without a visa has always added up to $0 because the extremely high taxes we already pay locally (50+ percent income tax, 20+ percent sales tax, 80+ percent excise tax on fuel etc) can be deducted.

Aloisius 13y ago

I read the article. It talks about Facta and then tries to link it to people complaining about how expensive it is to file tax returns, but the two aren't linked unless you weren't reporting your real income. Americans have always had to file taxes while living abroad. The tax laws have been extremely complicated for decades. Facta isn't changing that. FTA: "Fatca provisions impose no new obligations on US citizens living abroad... US taxpayers, including US citizens living abroad, are required to comply with US tax laws," he says. No, this sounds more like people who might have fudged some numbers now worrying that the IRS is going to find out and realizing that their citizenship isn't worth the yearly bill.

Lewisham 13y ago
It said that people were not so worried about making sure their tax return was exactly correct. Now they are, so you need to hire better tax lawyers than you did before. I take exception to your characterization of "fudging numbers". We all fudge the numbers of our tax returns, even when filing in the US. How many people really do anything but use TurboTax and hope for the best? I know I do. I can't possibly know everything about US tax law. I hope TurboTax does, but I have no guarantee, and it's my ass on the line if it screws up. I see no difference between that and the expats mentioned in the article, except the help they have to buy in is far more expensive.
auctiontheory 13y ago
It became so complicated to do her tax return that she turned to professionals, at an annual cost of nearly $2,000 (£1,250), with the prospect of Fatca raising the price to $5,000. Also, fewer tax lawyers were taking on American clients, she says, and some banks were even turning away American money. I don't see any mention of tax-dodging in the paragraph above. Which part of paying $2000 (and maybe soon $5000) to file taxes, and banks turning away American customers, don't you understand?
- Aloisius 13y ago
  See this is what I don't understand. Facta does not change tax law. It should have no bearing on the cost of having your taxes done. You already had to declare foreign bank accounts to the IRS, so really all the law is doing is getting them declared automatically. Now fewer tax lawyers certainly will raise costs, but that has nothing to do with Facta.
  - BlobbleBlab 13y ago
    What it changes is that it requires (non-US) banks to keep track of which of their accounts are owned or co-owned by someone who may have a (dual) US citizenship, and may have made an error in their tax returns, or risk having some of their US assets seized. Some banks just prefer not to take the risk. The non resident citizen tax returns can become very complicated in the situation where the non resident US citizen is married to a non resident foreigner. The tax forms don't even support this configuration - the spouse must have a social security number. The foreign spouse must then apply for a special "non resident alien" social security number, for the special purpose of being able to file taxes in a country they are not even allowed to enter without a visa. And how exactly do you determine the value of your shared assets in dollars? Have you made capital gain every time the dollar fluctuates against the local currency? Since we bought our home, our property has dropped significantly in value in the currency we earn our wages in, but theoretically gained a bit in dollars, so how can we be sure this doesn't add up to exceed $50,000? The only way to be sure is to hire an expert figure it out for you, for several thousand $. They are now charging more for their services because of the higher risks and responsibilities involved. The net amount we have to pay in that country one of us isn't allowed to enter without a visa has always added up to $0 because the extremely high taxes we already pay locally (50+ percent income tax, 20+ percent sales tax, 80+ percent excise tax on fuel etc) can be deducted.