A reader asks: ‘How do I navigate the shoals of being between U.S. and French citizenship, without having to put all my assets into cash and sticking them under my mattress for a few years?’
The latest Tweede Kamer hearing in the Netherlands, on the fraught subject of the U.S. tax evasion-prevention law known as FATCA, revealed that progress for those dual U.S./Dutch citizens affected by it continues to elude Dutch lawmakers, according to a number of "accidental Americans" and others who viewed the two-hour-long session online.
"Dozens" of customers of Dutch banks have come forward to report that their bank accounts in the country have been frozen, and banking services otherwise being denied to them, because they are considered to be American and yet have failed to provide the banks with their U.S. "tax information numbers" (TINs), according to reports out of the Netherlands.
A Dutch radio news report on Tuesday which cited a "six-fold rise" in the number of American/Dutch citizens who reportedly had sought help in giving up their U.S. citizenships this year has been picked up by the English language media in that country and abroad.
A reader asks: ‘How do I navigate the shoals of being between U.S. and French citizenship, without having to put all my assets into cash and sticking them under my mattress for a few years?’
In the latest development in what is becoming a fast-moving international story concerning the bank accounts of tens of thousands of "accidental Americans" living outside of the U.S., it has emerged that the Dutch Banking Association has posted an animated video on the home page of its website in which it warns such clients of the need to get their U.S. Social Security numbers – if they don’t wish to lose their Dutch bank accounts.
In March 2016, after years of lobbying U.S. government officials over the problems that American expats had been having in being able to get bank accounts and mortgages while abroad, the American Citizens Abroad organisation announced a partnership with the State Department Federal Credit Union (SDFCU) to provide such expats with US-citizen-friendly banking services.
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
