World Affairs Brief, October 4, 2019 Commentary and Insights on a Troubled World.

Copyright Joel Skousen. Partial quotations with attribution permitted. Cite source as Joel Skousen’s World Affairs Brief (http://www.worldaffairsbrief.com).

Persecution of American Ex pats—cut off from banking: I have long warned against moving overseas to escape Big Brother. In this Expat warning, an experienced ex patriot explains how the IRS is forcing banks everywhere to cut off access to American expats who are still citizens:

…[Thanks to the] Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) in 2010, things got even worse for overseas Americans. The law requires foreign banks and other financial institutions with US customers to act as unpaid informants for the IRS. If they fail to do so, US-source income they have in the form of interest, dividends, rents, and similar payments becomes subject to a 30% withholding tax.

Despite FATCA’s flawed premise, the IRS has ratcheted up the pressure on foreign financial institutions (FFIs) to enforce it. Unsurprisingly, most FFIs don’t want anything to do with the law. They’ve closed hundreds of thousands of accounts held by US citizens instead. With their local accounts closed, many overseas Americans increased their reliance on US accounts. But US banks and brokerages have started to close accounts owned by non-resident citizens as well.