With the New Hampshire Democratic Primary set for next Tuesday, and, as reported, the Democrats Abroad's Global Presidential Primary scheduled for March 3 to 10, expats are increasingly desperate to know where the candidates stand on such key issues as FATCA, citizenship-based taxation and President Trump's Tax Cuts and Jobs Act.

None of the candidates thus far, however, has shown quite the same level of enthusiasm for going on the record in detail with respect to their positions on such topics...

With less than two weeks until the end of the year – at which point banks and other financial institutions outside the U.S. have been told that they must supply so-called Tax Information Numbers of all their American clients, or potentially be in breach of the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act – the European Union has formally urged the U.S. Treasury to urgently address "the problems faced by residents, financial institutions and governments of the EU Member States in relation to FATCA". 

Growing global enforcement of two major anti-tax-evasion regulations – America's Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act, and the OECD's almost-identical Common Reporting Standard – has begun to impact financial institutions and their clients in Mexico and LatAm generally who also have ties to Israel and, in some cases, the U.S., the Jerusalem Post newspaper  has reported. 

The number of tax advisers with foreign addresses who have been licensed by the U.S. Treasury "has increased almost 50% since 2016," Bloomberg has reported, citing IRS data.

Under pressure from European banks in particular, the U.S. Internal Revenue Service has issued clarification with respect to a FATCA requirement that "foreign financial institutions" be obliged to provide the so-called Taxpayer Identification Numbers of their American clients from January, 2020 onward, which tax experts say means that banks now won't have to close the accounts of their TIN-lacking "accidental American" clients at the end of this year.

Another British member of Parliament has come forward to question the UK's chancellor of the exchequer, on behalf of a dual American/British citizen constituent, as to what if any "recent representations he has made to his [U.S.] counterpart" with respect to "the creation of accidental Americans through the U.S. Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act". 

Over the last few weeks and months, more media attention than usual has been paid to the 2010 Obama law known as the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA).

The European Parliament is due to hold a public hearing into the U.S. Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act "and its extra-territorial impact on EU citizens" on Nov. 12, the American Expat Financial News Journal understands.

Dutch tax minister Menno Snel has said that his country's banks and financial institutions should not feel a need to panic over those of their so-called "accidental American" account-holders who lack U.S. Social Security numbers and other key data soon to be required by the U.S. tax authorities, as he has been assured that any repercussions for failing to comply with the regulations in question could be delayed by as long as several years.

An American who came to the UK 19 years ago, and who was stunned to receive a letter from her bank in 2016 informing her of her U.S. tax obligations and that her account data would be shared with the Internal Revenue Service – as required by the U.S. Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act – has retained London's Mishcon de Reya law firm to legally challenge what she claims is the mis-use of her personal data and a violation of her privacy.