The more you know, the better your plan

The IRS seems to be putting the infamous FATCA statute into effect two years early. It's already withholding 30% of all U.S. income generated from U.S. securities accounts owned by non-resident aliens (NRA). That's only supposed to begin happening in two years.

A U.S. law with the Orwellian name of the "Bank Secrecy Act" requires U.S. citizens and permanent residents to report interests in, or authority over all foreign accounts with an aggregate value of $10,000 or more...

Earlier this week, I participated in to a teleconference sponsored by the Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners and the International Law section of the American Bar Association. The conference addressed the expanded offshore asset disclosure requirements brought into effect by the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA). (For background on FATCA  see here, here.)

Occasionally, the U.S. Congress discovers to its great surprise that the agency it created to collect revenues for the federal government, the Internal Revenue Service, engages in systematic abuse of taxpayers. In one such moment in 1979, Congress created the Office of the Taxpayer Ombudsman as a taxpayer advocate within the IRS. This office eventually became the Taxpayer Advocate Service (TAS). by authority of first so-called "Taxpayer Bill of Rights" in 1988.

The United States is one of the very few countries, and the only major country, that taxes its citizens, no matter where they live. If you haven't lived in the United States in decades, you must pay tax on your worldwide income as if you never left. Even "accidental" U.S. citizens born overseas with at least one U.S. parent, who never set foot in the United States, must file U.S. tax returns. Beneficiaries of a deceased U.S. citizen living abroad must prepare a U.S. estate tax return and possibly pay estate tax, even if they're non-U.S. citizens who have never lived in the United States.

The United States is one of only two countries, and the only major country, that taxes its citizens, no matter where they live. If you haven’t lived in the United States in decades, you must pay tax on your worldwide income as if you never left. Even “accidental” U.S. citizens born overseas with at least one U.S. parent, who never set foot in the United States, must file U.S. tax returns. These laws affect every one of the more than 6 million U.S. citizens living abroad.

In my last blog entry, I described the latest salvo against offshore financial privacy from the IRS: the requirement to file a tell-all form annually with your tax return detailing “foreign financial assets” with an aggregate value exceeding $50,000.

Back in 2010, President Obama signed the infamous Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (“FATCA”). Among other provisions, FATCA provides that if you hold a “specified foreign financial asset” (SFFA), you must attach a disclosure statement to your income tax return for each year in which the aggregate value of all such assets exceeds $50,000, or a larger sum as directed by the IRS.

Approximately seven million U.S. citizens live overseas. And while most of them don’t realize it, they’re subject to the same U.S. tax and reporting obligations as any other U.S. citizen.