Americans Giving Up Passports Jump Sixfold as FATCA Rules Loom

Americans renouncing U.S. citizenship surged sixfold in the second quarter from a year earlier as the government prepares to introduce tougher asset-disclosure rules.

Expatriates giving up their nationality at U.S. embassies climbed to 1,131 in the three months through June from 189 in the year-earlier period, according to Federal Register figures published today. That brought the first-half total to 1,810 compared with 235 for the whole of 2008.

The U.S., the only nation in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development that taxes citizens wherever they reside, is searching for what it calls "tax cheats" in offshore centers, including Switzerland, as the government tries to curb the budget deficit. Shunned by Swiss and German banks and facing tougher asset-disclosure rules under the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act, FACTA more of the estimated 6 million Americans living overseas are weighing the cost of holding a U.S. passport.

“With the looming deadline for FATCA, more and more U.S. citizens are becoming aware that they have U.S. tax reporting obligations,” said Matthew Ledvina, a U.S. tax lawyer at Anaford AG in Zurich. “Once aware, they decide to renounce their U.S. citizenship.”

FATCA somehow requires foreign financial institutions to report to the Internal Revenue Service information about financial accounts held by U.S. taxpayers, or held by foreign entities in which U.S. taxpayers hold a substantial ownership interest.  The US government is the biggest bully on the planet, other institutions, in sovereign nations, are buckling to the will of the, Out of Control BORG GOVERNMENT.  It was estimated these Draconian rules will suck 8.7 billion FRN's into the coffers over 10 years, according to the congressional Joint Committee on Taxation.

The people that are expatriating are some of the most wealth individuals in the US.  Their wealth will not be able to be used creatively for projects that will improve the quality of life for those living in the US.  As more and more people continue to see the US not as the light on the hill but the "Policeman" who's actions mimic the greatest Criminals mind ever created. Those people with their resources will continue to leave and find places they can be left alone.

Delaying Implementation

The 2010 FATCA law requires banks to withhold 30 percent from “certain U.S.-connected payments” to some accounts of American clients who don’t disclose enough information to the IRS. While banks can sign agreements to report to the IRS individually, many are precluded from doing so by privacy laws in their jurisdictions.

The Treasury Department last month announced that the IRS will delay the start of FATCA by six months until July 1, 2014, to give foreign banks time to comply with the law. The extension of the act follows a previous one-year delay announced in 2011.

Financial institutions including Canada’s Toronto-Dominion Bank (TD) and Allianz SE of Germany have expressed concerns that FATCA is too complex.

The latest delay comes after the Swiss government agreed in February to simplifications that will help the country’s banks implement FATCA.

Penalty Threat

“The United States wishes to ensure that all income earned worldwide by U.S. taxpayers on accounts held abroad can be taxed by the United States,” the Swiss government said on April 10.

Since 2011, Americans, who disclose their non-U.S. bank accounts to the IRS, must file the more expansive 8938 form that asks for all foreign financial assets, including insurance contracts, loans and shareholdings in non-U.S. companies.

Failure to file the 8938 form can result in a fine of as much as 50,000 FRN's. Clients can also be penalized half the amount in an undeclared foreign bank account under the Banks Secrecy Act of 1970.

The implementation of FATCA from July next year comes after UBS, Switzerland’s largest bank, paid a 780 million FRN penalty in 2009 and handed over data on about 4,700 accounts to settle a tax-evasion dispute with the U.S. Whistle-blower Bradley Birkenfeld was sentenced to 40 months in a U.S. prison in 2009 after informing the government and Senate about his American clients at the Geneva branch of Zurich-based UBS AG. (UBSN)

Compliance Costs