My friend has dual citizenship (Switzerland & USA) because his mom is from the USA, but he has always lived in Switzerland. One of his bank accounts got closed when they found out he wasn’t just Swiss, but had US American citizenship too. I guess this is another case of things that only work if you’re rich.
He’s getting so annoyed with the USA’s tax overreach. He can’t get banking easily, can’t do the standard retirement savings, because they usually invest in bonds and using “foreign” bonds from the perspective of the USA’s IRS would cost him extra and he has to file taxes. Apparently even getting rid of US American citizenship is expensive and slow, and they don’t offer the “Service” in the embassy in Switzerland, he’d have to go to Paris.
That’s not about the rich, most banks these days just don’t want to service US citizens without a premium, because it puts a lot of bureaucracy on them. Blame the US government.
Well they didn’t want my friend because he wasn’t worth the trouble. But apparently rich Americans are opening accounts here without significant issues. So I’m seeing a clear difference based around the amount of assets someone has.
No he could not pay an extra fee, they just told him no. And different banks also declined. He was just holding onto an account he had for a while already from a bank that somehow never asked him about being a US Person, even though all banks usually do these days.
The he started working for a bank and they did give him an account, because they only want to pay wages onto an account in their own system. But that bank is now getting merged into one who didn’t want to give him an account, and he’s likely losing his job when the merger finishes, so we’ll see what happens to that account then.
My friend has dual citizenship (Switzerland & USA) because his mom is from the USA, but he has always lived in Switzerland. One of his bank accounts got closed when they found out he wasn’t just Swiss, but had US American citizenship too. I guess this is another case of things that only work if you’re rich.
He’s getting so annoyed with the USA’s tax overreach. He can’t get banking easily, can’t do the standard retirement savings, because they usually invest in bonds and using “foreign” bonds from the perspective of the USA’s IRS would cost him extra and he has to file taxes. Apparently even getting rid of US American citizenship is expensive and slow, and they don’t offer the “Service” in the embassy in Switzerland, he’d have to go to Paris.
That’s not about the rich, most banks these days just don’t want to service US citizens without a premium, because it puts a lot of bureaucracy on them. Blame the US government.
Well they didn’t want my friend because he wasn’t worth the trouble. But apparently rich Americans are opening accounts here without significant issues. So I’m seeing a clear difference based around the amount of assets someone has.
Your friend could always pay an extra fee or go to a different bank.
No he could not pay an extra fee, they just told him no. And different banks also declined. He was just holding onto an account he had for a while already from a bank that somehow never asked him about being a US Person, even though all banks usually do these days.
The he started working for a bank and they did give him an account, because they only want to pay wages onto an account in their own system. But that bank is now getting merged into one who didn’t want to give him an account, and he’s likely losing his job when the merger finishes, so we’ll see what happens to that account then.
It is the land of the the free. But IRS will hunt you down regardless of where in the world or perhaps planet in the universe you reside.