Two weekends ago, I had the opportunity to visit Normandy, France. This is where D-Day occurred on June 4, 1944, when the Allied Forces, including 73,000 Americans came to fight the Germans and bring freedom back to France. In other words, this is where Americans (and others) sacrificed their lives in great numbers in order to make the world better for France, and eventually the rest of Europe.
I was there with the Boy Scouts of America, as a Cub Scout mom. Why do I talk about this? Because I overheard a conversation between our Cub Scout Pack Leader and a woman who had volunteered to take over the role of pack secretary. It went something like this:
Pack Leader: Thank you so much for volunteering!
New secretary: I’m happy to. I used to do this in our scouting group in England.
Pack Leader: The best thing about you is that you’re not American so you can be a signatory on the bank account. The bank doesn’t allow any Americans to be on the pack bank account.
Think about this: The Boy Scouts of America can’t have any American passport holders listed on the bank account. Sounds pretty ridiculous, doesn’t it? It is until you understand that I live in Switzerland and our Boy Scout/Cub Scout troop is an international troop here.
To keep reading, click here: Could Your Business be Successful Without a Bank Account?
Why should the President listen to someone who gave up her American citizenship to avoid taxes? Were other Americans not evading taxes — by parking their money in offshore accounts — this law, passed by “Democrats, with support of some Republicans” (in plain English: Congress), wouldn’t have been passed in the first place. I can understand why Swiss banks wouldn’t want to participate; their banking industry is notorious for its untraceable, numbered, accounts. The new President says he will put America First and stop the outsourcing of American jobs, trade and resources. It will be interesting to see what he — in fact — does.
It’s not just Swiss banks. It’s banks everywhere. It’s expensive to be in compliance and most banks don’t want to deal with it.
The US would never stand for it if another country demanded US banks did the same.
So it has been awhile since I have written in, since I no longer have regular internet access, but I just wanted to thank you Evil Hr Lady for this article.
FATCA is certainly written to put America’s sticky fingers in as many honey pots as it can, and I can hardly blame these countries for saying forget it! Frankly it is nothing less than an infringement.
It certainly puts a damper on my future plans.