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Comment by crdoconnor | Hacker News Reader

>Her voice cracks and her eyes well up. She is in the process of relinquishing her American nationality. Soon she'll visit the US embassy formally to renounce her citizenship, she says, under duress.

>"I'm very proud of being an American. It's what I am when I look in the mirror.

>"If it weren't for Fatca [the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act] and the decision by the bank, I'd never be doing this. Never ever. It's just breaking me in half."

Caterwauling by the 1%.

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The US State Department's own numbers show that it is not the 1% relinquishing citizenship, It's normal Americans living and working overseas for long periods of time. These people are prevented from basic logistics required for having a life like opening and using a checking account.

I think of it this way: how insane would it be if my wife, a Russian citizen and US permanent resident who's lived and worked in the US for 12 years, could not open a checking account and was required by law to file taxes to the Russian Federation for her American high school teaching job?

It can be a huge hassle for normal US citizens living outside the US. Most banks won't deal with them because of the risks involved. As a US citizen abroad, just getting a regular bank account can be next to impossible.

I live in Singapore and when I was signing up for a stock trading account I asked what would have happened if I had to answer yes in the box that asked if I was liable to pay income tax in the US. The answer was plain: "you wouldn't be allowed to have an account with us".

I lived in Singapore for 3 years and managed without a stock trading account.

It's one of the easiest places to open a bank account, actually.

This is a recent development. How long ago were you in Singapore?

I wasn't clear. I asked the question when I was signing up for a trading account, but the question was about normal accounts. Thus was at DBS which is the largest consumer bank in Singapore.

" Jane has lived and worked in France for 30 years drawing what she calls a "humble" salary. She has filed a tax return every year even though she earns significantly less than $106,000 a year."

Hardly the 1%

You are, seemingly deliberately, failing to understand that this isn't a 1% problem. The 1% have tax advisors and CPAs paid to take care of this for them.

This is affecting expats and accidental americans in their daily lives, even if they have no income. I am not the first to suggest it, but reread the article, and image that you earn $30K and live in france, and for some reason you're account is being closed, and you need to spend 1K post tax a year filing for a country you don't live in.

The simple solution would be to synchronize FBAR and FACTA to use the same reporting amount as this would remove the vast majority of people from having to report. $10K is far to low given exchange rates. $50K-$100K or higher would probably be a more realistic number.

My other comment (in reply to another comment) shows how I, a brit, have gotten myself into a problem with far more that 100K, without having any idea.

The best option would be same country exemption for FBAR and FACTA. Or stop taxing non-resident citizens.

Please don't post comments like this. HN is for thoughtful discussion, not ideological venting.

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