Submitted 3 weeks ago by kSPvhmTOlwvMd7Y7E@lemmy.world to youshouldknow@lemmy.world
I saw some posts about american wanting to move to Europe; so just before you guys make the move, double-triple check insurances/banks, because literally every time I (not american) do smth financially related in France, they ask me if I am american? If yes, they won’t even open accounts/ give me insurance etc… Sounds discriminatory but apperently because legal
I dont know if that expands to any other field
Google FATCA, the US Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act.
Anyone anywhere in the world that is either US citizen, or a green card holder, or in other ways related to Murica, must pay US taxes. It’s insane, but the US tax system is powerful enough to bully all other countries into compliance.
Don’t get me started. 🤮
is powerful enough to bully all other countries into compliance
But not to tax the rich or corporations at all.
They can do anything they want. That is just something they don’t want to do. Again, 🤮
Exactly, how about the president pay taxes first lmao
Wish the American populace were brave enough to dump their tea in the harbor like before
Citizenship isn’t free. You don’t get to have your cake and eat it, too.
Funny, because it’s free everywhere else. Sounds like a bit of a shithole country.
If you renounce your citizenship the US government still expects you to pay taxes for the next 10 fucking years. Do you think that sounds reasonable too?
This isn’t about Americans’ obligation to pay. It’s about hassle being forced upon foreign companies that have fuck-all to do with America (except for having American expat customers), to make them help collect the taxes on the US’ behalf.
It literally is.
Who the fuck is getting cake!? The only thing we’re eating is shit from the Oligarchs.
In other countries, you pay taxes if you actually live there. If I move to Spain and live there for enough days per year, my taxes go to Spain, not Estonia.
The US system I believe means you get double taxed if you live and work elsewhere, although I’m not 100% sure.
I got mine for free, how much did you pay for yours?
Wow, I’ve never seen a post get a whole 100 downvotes before. This is a special moment for me.
Off topic but I hate that that phrase is backwards. If you have a cake you can eat that cake or you’re in the process of eating it (“having cake”). If you eat a cake you can’t then have it other than having it in your belly.
I know I’m being pedantic and off topic, but you’re getting downvote to hell so what’s it matter?
Oh but the cheap labor from non-citizens should be free from basic human civil rights protections, right? /s fkn idiot, you make me ashamed to be in the same country with you
american in europe here,
this is true. it’s very nearly impossible to open a bank account. There is exactly one bank in Switzerland who allows americans to open accounts, UBS. So far no banks in france have allowed me to open an account, even though I have a french residency permit. This makes it nearly impossible to take loans to buy things like houses or cars. Basically life here is impossible because being american fucking sucks.
Open an account at Service CU out of NH. Designed to work in Europe (IBAN, free foreign ATMs, etc). Everyone who works for the state department gets it, and afaik it’s open to the public.
iban thing is nice, do you know if you can finance cars or homes? right now i have to have to drive around a beater because no european bank = no loan
Renounce your citizenship.
i don’t have a second citizenship to fall back on, so i’d be stateless. also, i can’t afford to since you have to pay all the taxes on potential income for the next 10 years or something
I want to add that renouncing your citizenship also isn’t a valid option for many.
One of the hard requirements for renouncing your citizenship is having citizenship in another country, and that is easier said than done in many countries. Like for example, Canada, you have to be a perm resident in the country for four years and also have lived there for the past six, Mexico requires 5 years. most of the EU has 5-10 years as their resident requirement.
And that’s also ignoring the cost that they require of a citizen to renounce their Citizenship. It’s 2300+ USD to do if you manage to get it first try, and that can be denied still.
You have residency, but do you have an official French ID, like a police ID? In Finland at least the residency permit does not count as a valid ID and you have to get a separate one (like a driver’s license or police ID) in order to for example open a bank account.
This is crazy to learn about. Afaik no Americans in the UK have ever had issues opening bank accounts, even students.
It’s not because they banned us citizens. It’s because the us government is one of the few ones that wants to tax stuff that their citizens earned in other countries, so banks and similar they need to report wealth and income to the government
The checkbox isn’t “if you’re American we can’t offer you services”, when you select that, then you have an extra form to fill, that’s it
It’s because the us government is one of the few ones that wants to tax stuff that their citizens earned in other countries
One of exactly two.
It’s not discriminatory. They don’t have any legal obligation to serve citizens of foreign countries. When they do serve American citizens it triggers a whole lot of regulatory work, and it’s understandable they don’t want to do that unless you’re a high net worth individual (ie they make enough profit to cover that cost)
It’s not discriminatory.
I mean it quite literally is discriminatory, but it’s legal and justified discrimination.
Good point.
The rule is not just for US citizens, but for a specific category called “US Person”, which is broader, and I think it includes anyone with any tie to the US. I believe having American parents, having had US citizenship even if you renounced it, or having had a greencard, also count. Though I don’t know the exact rules.
They do have an obligation to serve their own citizens. The US double tax reporting bullshit does apply to dual citizens.
I hate to recommend the evil empire, but there’s a very good sub on this topic called r/AmerExit. Sometimes a community is too niche to exist on the Fediverse, and one must hold one’s nose and visit Reddit for certain content.
This is not because anyone wants to discriminate against Americans (maybe they do, but it’s unrelated to this rule), but because of rules the US forces on the rest of the world. There are special tax reporting rules for US Persons that banks have to obey if they want to be able to do business with the US at all. If you can’t or don’t want to follow those special rules, avoiding having US Persons as customer is the easiest way to comply.
I’ve worked for several Dutch banks, and US Person is a special category they have to deal with. No other nationality has this. Maybe Ethiopia? But that’s easily ignored. But nobody ignores the US. They have no choice but to comply. Vote for a different tax code if you don’t like it.
AFAIK this has to do with US tax law and how it applies to income earned by US citizens abroad.
I have never answered yes to this, but would be surprised if it were impossible or even considerably harder for US persons to open bank accounts. I always thought this just triggered slightly different rules for the bank?
Lots of non-American banks don’t want to deal with the rules, so it’s easier for them to just say that they won’t open accounts for Americans.
This is one of those little catches anyone preaching to their relatives to emigrate don’t say about.
If you have two nationalities, couldn’t you just be sneaky and never tell the authorities of the country you moved to? If you’re not planning on going back, for example, what would be the problem?
Sounds like fraud. As long as no one finds out you’d probably get away with it, but you would be committing tax evasion according to US laws.
If you really don’t want to go back you can get rid of your US citizenship and avoid the problem.
My experience is that in most cases, when asked about your nationality in a form it’s easier and normal to only give one nationality.
Like at the airport, even if I have multiple nationalities I only give one passport, I just have to make sure it’s the right passport (the one with the visa for example).
However in there case of back accounts, insurances … They ask specifically “are you a U.S. citizen ?”. In this case answering no to this question would be a clear lie.
Wait… You didn’t know off-shore bank accounts are only for the rich and powerful?
Downvotes likely from non-Americans. Europeans specifically. They like to downvote stuff about America and Americans on Lemmy.
Thanks for reminding me, I almost forgot to.
If you mention (and especially if you complain about) downvotes, you’re gonna receive them from everybody. That’s just how it is. It’s fake internet points, they don’t matter.
This is also very true. OP may have picked up a few “Hate Followers” too, I know I have picked up a few along my time on the internet. They just can’t be bothered to use the block feature, I guess. Or they think they are getting back at them.for some reason, which is pretty sad if someone thinks fake internet points matter that much.
I remember when I used to have a Reddit account that had Hate Followers, I would make a post or comment that would almost always end in a high positive vote count, but in less than 60 seconds of posting it the vote count would be zero for like an hour before the vote count turned positive lol. Always had one or two comments from the same accounts that werent even related to whatever I was talking about. I used to get a good chuckle out of it.
EDIT: lol i am now wondering what are people are downvoting for? You dont like that fact, so you downvote whoever told you that fact? Some reactions are hilarious
Perhaps, just maaaybe there’s a social climate attributed to current events that makes this post more of a, “no shit Sherlock” kind of post. 🙄
Low hanging fruit and all that.
Also, being butthurt about downvotes is cringe as fuck, go back to reddit.
I am not on reddit, you seem to keep inferring random stuff lol go back to sleep
yeah I have eu citizenship and can’t open an account in europe. Now I can if I am resident to the particular area. I think europe is losing a big opportunity as I would not be surprised if quite a few us people would not mind having a bit of euros in a better run banking system just in case. They should tell the us to shove it with whatever laws or treaties prevent this.
Nah, all eu countries will honor their tax treaties with the us. If the us gov/irs wants to fuck over their citizens that’s your problem.
well and lost opportunity. What makes a reserve currency is people keeping accounts in that currency.
If you’re not American, why are you telling the institutions that you are?
Huh? Where i said that
My question was genuine. You wrote:
they ask me if I am american? If yes, they won’t even open accounts/ give me insurance etc…
They propably slip explanation to the question like “Good, then we can open the account”
HAHAHAHAHA!!!
th3dogcow@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
Financial institutions in Japan ask the same thing. It is because Americans have to pay tax to American even when they don’t live in America. It just means there is more paperwork apparently.
tetris11@feddit.uk 3 weeks ago
Yup, I had no idea how fucked you guys were with the taxes thing until I learned you had to declare it twice if living abroad
th3dogcow@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Luckily I’m not one of those guys haha
MissJinx@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
American citzenship is the OG subscription
IncogCyberSpaceUser@piefed.social 2 weeks ago
That’s only if you make more than 100k, just for additional information.
Treczoks@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
But they still have to report it, even if it is below.