FATCA

[Tero]

...and requires foreign financial institutions to report to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) about their U.S. clients.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FATCA

[FBM]

I caught a glimpse of this elsewhere. Here in Korea, I have 3 different bank accounts, 1 in Thailand and one in the US. If I prevent any one of them from becoming worth more than 50k, I shouldn't have to report it, eh? I don't see where it says that I have to report on my total savings, just any account worth over that amount.

[Hermit]

There is legitimate concern about the cost of FATCA, but apart from that I find it laughable that people are opposed to what is essentially a measure to fight tax evasion. Their energy would better expended on opposing the fact that governments secretly record every digital fart on the internet.

And no, FBM, you don't have to do anything. Regardless of what your account balances amount to, singly or cumulatively, all your transactions are already being logged by one government institution or another.

[FBM]

Oh, right. It's not self-reporting.

And I do agree that people hiding significant taxable wealth in offshore accounts is a big problem that needs to be solved. I'm just not one of those people.

[Tero]

The Swiss are now rejecting Americans. Too much trouble.

I do have an account in Europe but it has 0 balance. Some sort of Tsarist rule prevents me from closing it except in person.

[MrJonno]

I always found it weird the the US taxes its citizens wherever they are in the world, if I moved to the US to work as far as the British tax system is concerned I cease to be a citizen and are none of their business

[Hermit]

I always found it weird the the US taxes its citizens wherever they are in the world, if I moved to the US to work as far as the British tax system is concerned I cease to be a citizen and are none of their business

You may find that the the US does not tax its citizens wherever they are in the world, but it does insist that the relevant taxes on monies earnt within the US are paid. Ever heard of transfer pricing? It goes like this: I read an article once about a certain media magnate some time ago. I won't mention his name, but his initials are Rupert Murdoch. It is said he owns more than half the newspapers in Australia. Apparently they make next to no profit. Sad state of affairs, that, but at least he pays no tax. His company, News Limited, has an office somewhere in the Canary Islands. Despite the fact that it owns no newspapers, TV networks or anything like that there, it manages to post profits in the 10-digit territory there. Strange that. I can't recall where I found that article, but it's not likely to have appeared in one of News Limited's publications.

[Svartalf]

bad names might be wasted on murdoch, but nobody says they are undeserved.
Let's wait for him to die and see what becomes of his empire.

[Hermit]

Let's wait for him to die and see what becomes of his empire.

It'll keep mutating as it always has, but essentially remain to be what it is: a huge corporation. He didn't start the empire, by the way. He inherited it from his father, Sir Keith, and developed it from there. His son, Lachlan, will probably do the same. Much the same as another Australian media conglomerate, really. James is the third generation of Packers running their empire.