US Tax & Banking Articles

Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney defends bank access for overseas Americans

On Tuesday, March 20, Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney of New York, Ranking Member of the House Committee on Financial Institutions and Consumer Credit, put a direct question to Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner concerning the difficulties overseas Americans are increasingly encountering in maintaining or opening bank accounts abroad, where they live and work and need access to financial services.

In response, Secretary...

13 February 2017

U.S. Treasury Department issues new regulations on FATCA compliance

On February 8, the Treasury Department issued new regulations related to the reporting required of “foreign financial institutions” under the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA).  Click here for a New York Times article on the changes.

As pointed out in that article, however, the new regulations do not address the concerns of individual filers abroad, alarmed at the extensive...

13 February 2017

New IRS Voluntary Disclosure Program on undeclared assets abroad

On January 9, the IRS announced that it was yet again reviving its program inviting those with undeclared accounts abroad to declare them, facing heavy penalties for not having filed previously but, in some cases, avoiding even higher penalties.  Click here for the Bloomberg News article on this from the New York Times.  Note that, as reported by the Associated...

13 February 2017

Foreign Earned Income Exclusion in the Crosshairs - once again!

While everyone knows (or should) that “U.S. persons” (citizens and green card holders) are required (above a very low minimum) to report their worldwide income to the U.S. Internal Revenue Service, many  do not actually owe tax because of credits given under tax treaties and because of the Foreign Earned Income Exclusion (FEIE), now $92,400, credited against earned income (not...

13 March 2021

FATCA and Overseas Americans - and overseas American Spouses

In March of 2010, President Obama signed the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) into law as part of the HIRE Act, requiring foreign financial institutions (FFIs) to report to the IRS specific data pertaining to U.S. persons (citizens, green card holders, “accidental citizens” born to Americans abroad, etc.), including annual debit and credit totals and any movements out of...

13 March 2021

IRS deadline for "voluntary disclosure" of foreign bank accounts now passed

The August 31 deadline for voluntary disclosure of “offshore” bank accounts, extended by the IRS to September 9, has now passed.

"US persons" (citizens and green card holders) who are not yet in compliance with their tax and bank account reporting obligations should inform themselves and in some cases consult a tax professional.  FAWCO will continue to post information on...

13 February 2017