Tag Archives: Swiss

Swiss Parliament to Vote on FATCA IGA in Summer Parliamentary Session, Proposed Swiss Federal Law to Apply FATCA

I would like to draw your attention to my latest article at IBS about the FATCA IGA with Switzerland, the proposed application law, the parliamentary consultation procedure now in progress, and my emails exchanged with the Swiss State Secretariat for International Financial Matters.
Continue reading Swiss Parliament to Vote on FATCA IGA in Summer Parliamentary Session, Proposed Swiss Federal Law to Apply FATCA

Americans in Switzerland Letter to Congress

Americans living in Switzerland seem to have been hit the hardest of any with reports of banks there closing accounts of US-born Swiss residents and even refusing to renew mortgages because of IRS efforts.
An Americans in Switzerland Letter has been sent to Congress.   Will it make a difference?  It doesn’t seem much will budge Congress or IRS, especially when you consider Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin said in July:

“You either get a Swiss bank account to conceal what you’re doing, or you believe the Swiss franc is stronger than the American dollar.”

Then, of course, Obama’s former press secretary Robert Gibbs said;

“I pick a bank because there’s an ATM near my home. Romney had a bank account in Switzerland.”

Well, guess what?  People living in Switzerland get bank accounts with ATMs near their homes too.  It’s not convenient to get on a plane, fly across the ocean, use an ATM in Washington (which IRS considers the official residence of Americans living outside US), take out US dollars, fly home to Switzerland and convert the money into Swiss francs to spend where you live.
And, Senator Durbin, there is a third reason for Swiss bank accounts.  People living in Switzerland need them for normal everyday banking–like deposits of employment income, payment of bills and mortgages and saving for children’s education and retirement.
Those are also the reasons people living in Brazil, China, India, Mexico, Canada and elsewhere have bank accounts in the countries where they live (and where many of us are citizens).
Go after the real tax cheats.  Certainly find out why Romney and others living in US have Swiss or Cayman Island accounts. Make them file FBARs.   Leave the rest of us alone to pursue our normal, honest, law-abiding tax-paying lives in other countries.
Democratic Swissophobia is hurting “US persons” throughout the world.  The witch hunt is causing Amerophobia around the globe.  .