I work for the IRS and we'd love to get this squared away. Please contact me at [email protected] and we can resolve this immediately.
Best
Every time a US Customs agent asks me if I will ever be interested in becoming a citizen I laugh and tell them about situations like this.
When I was young I dreamed of moving to the US, now it is a huge joke because of all the paperwork and FACTA's "Hotel California" implications. Now I will never apply to be a US citizen. Especially because I would have addditional paperwork until I die.
BTW, this even affects Canadians and Canadian legal entities as we're all forced to declare we are not US Persons even if it is obvious we are not.
FACTA is an overreach of power and the IRS should do a better job pushing back against laws like this. The US was once known as "the place to do business" (at least in the Americas) but now it appears to be just a gigantic bureaucracy.
I think it is good people are renouncing their citizenship... Perhaps it is the only way to let the government know how bad the system is.
The point being, it's scare tactics. I filed a complaint with the https://www.irs.gov/Advocate and they are well aware of the issue. They have brought it up repeatedly in their report to Congress. The IRS's response is an FU and it shows how toothless the Advocate's office is. You can see their report on international issues here https://www.irs.gov/pub/tas/2011_arc_internationalmsps.pdf, The reporting requirements section is close to the bottom.