FATCA's now a teen-ager! So, 13 years on: Just how well do you know your FATCA?

FATCA's now a teen-ager! So, 13 years on: Just how well do you know your FATCA?

Today, March 18, 2023, is the 13th anniversary of the signing into law of FATCA. And as we've done in the past, we're marking the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act's 13th "birthday" today by sharing some of our favorite, impossible-to-resist questions about it, in order to test just how well we've all been paying attention.

We're doing this because we know only too well that, without really meaning to, many American expatriates as well as tax industry experts, lawyers and others have become experts on the subject of FATCA over the past 13 years it's been around...   

Ross McGill: ‘FATCA isn’t the problem: CBT is’ 

Ross McGill: ‘FATCA isn’t the problem: CBT is’ 

In the early years of this century, a number of major media exposés reported how Homeland Americans, as well as rich people from other developed and developing countries, were making use of secret overseas bank accounts in order to avoid their tax obligations back home. 
 
Switzerland, where bank secrecy was enshrined in law, was an unsurprising favorite of many such wealthy individuals, but other jurisdictions were also named...
Opinion: Post-Bittner, might taxpayers who paid 'non-willful' FBAR penalties based on the no. of accounts they held... get a refund?

Opinion: Post-Bittner, might taxpayers who paid 'non-willful' FBAR penalties based on the no. of accounts they held... get a refund?

As regular readers of the American Expat Financial News Journal will know, the U.S. Supreme Court on Feb. 28 finally ended years of confusion over a major expatriate banking issue, when it found that a lower court – like so many others in the years leading up to this decision – had erred when it ruled in favor of an IRS policy of basing the penalties it assigned to Americans found to have "non-willfully" held numerous unreported overseas financial accounts on the numbers of such accounts they held.
Daniel 'Danny' Werfel, left; right, the IRS building in Washington, DC

Danny Werfel takes his seat as IRS commissioner, succeeding Chuck Rettig

Daniel "Danny" Werfel has at last taken his place as commissioner of the U.S. Internal Revenue Service, almost four months to the day after his predecessor, Charles "Chuck" Rettig, completed his four-year term. 

Werfel's nomination was approved by the Senate earlier this month, by a bipartisan 54-42 margin, and becomes the agency's 50th commissioner. He was sworn office yesterday (March 13by IRS deputy commissioner for Services and Enforcement Doug O’Donnell, who has served as acting commissioner since November.

  • News
U.S. Supreme Court

FBAR experts: SCOTUS Bittner decision could see shift towards more ‘willful’ charges, greater 'rule of lenity' awareness

(...or possibly not...)


Regular watchers of the way U.S. officials have been prosecuting American taxpayers whom they deemed to have committed "non-willful" breaches of the government's so-called FBAR regulations didn't have to be asked twice for their thoughts on Tuesday's landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision that – at long last – finally established how penalties for such breaches are to be determined. 

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Dems Abroad, to House subcommittee hearing: 'substantial adjustments needed' to FBAR regs

Dems Abroad, to House subcommittee hearing: 'substantial adjustments needed' to FBAR regs

In what might be seen as a timely move on the part of the Democrats Abroad, given the extent to which FBARs have been in the news this past week, the organization submitted a seven-page document to the House Financial Services Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations ahead of hearings scheduled for this past Wednesday (March 8), in which it urged House lawmakers to make "needed" and "substantial adjustments to FinCEN Form 114, the Report of Foreign Bank and Financial Accounts or 'FBAR'." 

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Tax

FATCA's now a teen-ager! So, 13 years on: Just how well do you know your FATCA?

FATCA's now a teen-ager! So, 13 years on: Just how well do you know your FATCA?

Mar-18-2023

Legislation

Four House members urge Ways & Means to consider 'simplified tax form for expats' as ACA holds out for RBT

Four House members urge Ways & Means to consider 'simplified tax form for expats' as ACA holds out for RBT

Sep-28-2021

Opinion

Ross McGill: ‘FATCA isn’t the problem: CBT is’ 

Ross McGill: ‘FATCA isn’t the problem: CBT is’ 

In the early years of this century, a number of major media exposés reported how Homeland Americans, as well as rich people from other developed and developing countries, were making...

Mar-18-2023