Democrats Abroad work to stop FATCA blowback on US expats

Since coming into law in July 2014, the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act has caused banks around the world to close accounts for their American clients.
Despite this major hurdle, France Home Finance is able to obtain French mortgages and French bank accounts for Americans in France.

From the Democrats Abroad post December 14, 2015:

FATCA requires foreign financial institutions to report the financial accounts of US citizens to the IRS annually. Foreign financial institutions which fail to meet their FATC filing obligations face a penalty of 30 percent withholding on US source income. A penalty of this nature could jeopardize the viability of all business foreign financial institutions conduct with US-based counterparts. No financial institution that does business with US counterparts can afford to ignore the risk of getting their FATCA compliance wrong when the penalty is this high. Thus we are seeing some banks across the world refusing to handle any accounts for US citizens.

Democrats Abroad has updates on three fronts:

1) Generating Senate support for the “Same Country Safe Harbor” - DA worked through the summer to generate signatures from the House of Representatives on a letter to the US Treasury and IRS urging them implement the Same Country Safe Harbor solution. They are now working on generating enough signatures from the Senate.

2) FATCA Lawsuit - after the loss in federal court on Crawford et al v United States, challenging the constitutionality of FATCA, prospects look slim to keep the case alive.

3) The Worldwide program for the exchange of financial account information starts January 1, 2016 - FATCA was the model and inspiration for the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) to create a worldwide program of financial account transparency and disclosure. It is known as the Common Reporting Standards (CRS) and over 90 countries have signed up to report the financial accounts of non-national account holders to the tax authority in the account holder’s country of tax residence. CRS differs from FATCA in some important ways, most especially in relation to the severity of penalties for compliance failure.

Read the full article HERE

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» December, 2015: Democrats work to stop FATCA blowback

» November, 2015: Buying a Piece of France - Tax and Legal Need to Know, November 2015

» April, 2015: Paris Real Estate Outlook 2015

» October, 2014: Breaking News on Euro USD

» October, 2014: Inheritance law in France : Major change for you in 2015

» March, 2014: France Home Finance on TV

» February, 2014: French Property Tax Update 2014

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» April, 2011: France’s Economy is Looking Up

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» April, 2011: Outlook for European Inflation

» April, 2011: Why France is still Drawing Expats

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» March, 2011: France World Tourism Leader

» March, 2011: Update on French Mortgages

» March, 2011: Rising French Property Values

» February, 2011: Role of the Notaire

» February, 2011: European Economic Outlook for 2011

» February, 2011: Key French Tax Deadlines for 2011

» January, 2011: The Complete Mortgage Process

» November, 2010: French Property Taxes

» November, 2010: The Benefits of Hiring a Mortgage Broker

» October, 2010: Qualifying for a French Mortgage

» September, 2010: Primary Costs Involved With a French Mortgage

» September, 2010: Fixed or Variable Mortgage Rate?

» August, 2010: French Leasebacks

» August, 2010: Compulsory French Life Insurance

» July, 2010: Commercial Real Estate Sector Must Meet Sustainable Criteria

» July, 2010: Major Decrease in U.S. Property Sales

» June, 2010: Global Real Estate Recovery

» June, 2010: Second Homes for Wealthy French Real Estate Investors

» May, 2010: Increase in Confidence of French Real Estate Market

» December, 2009: Key French tax deadlines for 2010

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» August, 2009: Visit France Home Finance in our new location