Re:Why expat Americans are giving up their passports
by TheOtherHobbes on Wednesday February 10, 2016 @10:21AM
(#11073290)
How does the US enforce this?
What happens if someone with no plans to visit the US and no income from the US that could be garnished says "So - come and get it if you want it"?
Re:Why expat Americans are giving up their passports
by dalke on Wednesday February 10, 2016 @10:41AM
(#11073433)
Well, obviously they can't. This is especially so for American citizens who are citizen by blood, have never set foot in the US, and have no family to visit.
But notice how they've been working on new rules like FATCA that go after the citizen's bank, assuming the bank does any sort of business in the US?
For all I know, in 10 years the IRS will force the bank to extract penalties directly from someone's account.
Re:Why expat Americans are giving up their passports
by gcb0 on Wednesday February 10, 2016 @11:26AM
(#11073779)
the founder of a big french game studio filled for ipo two years after giving up his green card (not even citizenship).
the irs got the french gov to freeze all his assets claiming he was giving up citizenship to evade taxes.
Before then, http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-taxes-foreign-idUSTRE7... reports that after 26 months of work, and at one time with a likely penalty of $172,000, the final penalty was $25,000 total. Does that count as "come across"?
Even without paying the fine, http://www.thelocal.se/20120306/39522 reports "while Pamela may no longer be facing a seven-figure penalty, she's already racked up a bill of $40,000 in accountants' and lawyers' fees." Most of the cases I've heard of (the Reuters piece includes more) are of people who paid penalties under the voluntary disclosure program or had to spend a lot on accountant fees to get things straightened out.
And there's still the stress of worrying if a minor mistake out of ignorance when I send the information to my accountant might still end up with huge penalties in the future.