The FATCA Burden of the American Living Overseas

Mark your calendars now for our upcoming financial forum — the North American Expat Financial Forum — that will take place on Wednesday, May 30th from 4 to 8 p.m. here in Paris at the Historic Chez Jenny. Once again, as it was last year, the forum is hosted by Dunhill Financial and the Adrian Leeds Group, sponsored by Moneycorp Currency Specialists and Caye International Bank — making it ABSOLUTELY FREE to all who attend!

Seven international speakers are coming together for this very special event. And for those who wish to continue the informative and fun evening, you can top it off by staying for dinner at Chez Jenny.

I’ll be posting a lot more information in the days to come, so stay tuned…but meanwhile, seating is limited, so reservations will be taken on a first come-first serve basis. To reserve your place at the conference NOW, email us.

*Note: Attendees must be 18 years of age and older, and must reserve in advance.

At the Forum, we are surely going to be discussing “FATCA.” You can bet, Michael Larsen, with the American Citizens Abroad (ACA) will have plenty to say about it, as will most of our other speakers. If you don’t know this acronym, then you need to. It stands for “Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act.”

“The Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) is a 2010 United States federal law requiring all non-U.S. (‘foreign’) financial institutions (FFIs) to search their records for customers with indicia of ‘U.S.-person’ status, such as a U.S. place of birth, and to report the assets and identities of such persons to the U.S. Department of the Treasury. FATCA also requires such persons to self-report their non-U.S. financial assets annually to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) on form 8938, which is in addition to the older and further redundant requirement to self-report them annually to the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) on form 114 (also known as ‘FBAR’). Like U.S. income tax law, FATCA applies to U.S. residents and also to U.S. citizens and green card holders residing in other countries.” (Wikipedia.org)

The law, signed as part of the HIRE Act under Barack Obama, was an attempt to target undeclared offshore accounts of Americans, created to avoid their U.S. tax obligations. But, it’s backfired on expatriates as banks around the world have denied U.S. citizens accounts and mortgages to purchase homes.

It’s no wonder that expatriates aren’t happy about the Act. It has been challenged as a violation of their constitutional rights, led by Kentucky Senator Rand Paul. Earlier this month, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear the challenge, denying “certiorari,” meaning that a decision handed down last August by a lower court was deemed final.

Opponents will not be deterred. The Republicans Overseas Facebook page vows to regroup and fight again:

“The repeal (or obsolescence) of FATCA may not be as remote as you think. In this video, our panel of Solomon Yue of Republicans Overseas, John Richardson of citizenshipsolutions.ca and Kathleen Mistry of AARO.org join Anthony Parent and global U.S. expat advocate Keith Redmond to discuss how it is possible to get not just FATCA repealed but how the ill-advised transition tax of IRS section 965 will be used as a wedge to get Congress to re-examine the entire concept of Universal Tax Jurisdiction.”

Democrats Abroad is just as united on this issue. It supports strong policy that discourages and apprehends tax cheats, but claims that “Congress did not fully anticipate the impact the regulations would have on overseas Americans and we, therefore, are now burdened with a tax reporting obligation that treats us like suspected tax cheats and money launderers. Democrats Abroad, in collaboration with other organizations of overseas Americans, supports a Safe Harbor for Americans abroad from FATCA reporting, also known as the Same Country Exception, which, when added to the FATCA implementation rules, will preserve the original intent of FATCA to fight illegal tax avoidance by Americans using overseas accounts to hide assessable earnings from the IRS, but will alleviate the useless reporting by overseas-resident citizens and their banks of ordinary accounts used to pay bills and save for the future.”

The ACA has been fighting the cause for years, pledging to keep up the pressure on Congress. President Trump’s tax reform bill signed on December 22nd that came into force on January 1st didn’t include hoped-for changes.

Here in France, a group of French citizens with dual nationality are complaining due to their burden as a result of their “accidental” American citizenship. They’re looking to France to help their cause by seeking a motion put forth in France’s National Assembly by Marc Le Fur, a French Member of Parliament and the National Assembly’s deputy speaker. A French-American group, “l’Association des Américains Accidentels” (Accidental American Association, or AAA), with over 300 members across France, and growing, is putting up a fight along with the American organizations.

About nine million American expats around the world are bearing the burden of their citizenship, unlike every other country’s nationals in the world. “The only major nation that taxes its citizens (and green card holders) regardless of where they live is the United States. So long as you hold a U.S. passport or green card, the Internal Revenue Service wants its cut of your profits and capital gains.” (premieroffshore.com/)

This means that anyone who was born in the U.S. is required to file a tax return to the IRS every year after they reach a certain age. It doesn’t matter if most of your life you lived outside the U.S., but if you were born in the U.S., you are obligated to it for life. Americans moving to France need to be aware of the tax and banking consequences of their U.S. citizenship.

If you wish to get involved in the fight against FATCA, join one or all of the groups that are fighting to repeal FATCA. You can also attend our Financial Forum to learn more about it!

The good news is that if you need to open a French bank account or are seeking financing for a property purchase and are finding it very challenging, let us help you. We are well-connected with American-friendly financial institutions that can accomplish both for you!

For more information, email us.

A bientôt,

Adrian Leeds
Adrian Leeds Group

Respond to Adrian

P.S. Don’t forget, seating for our North American Expat Financial Forum in May is limited, so reservations will be taken on a first come-first serve basis. To reserve your place at the conference NOW, email us today!