On February 8, the Treasury Department issued new regulations related to the reporting required of “foreign financial institutions” under the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA). Click here for a New York Times article on the changes.
As pointed out in that article, however, the new regulations do not address the concerns of individual filers abroad, alarmed at the extensive and time-consuming reporting required of them on their foreign financial assets of many kinds.
FAWCO is supporting three relatively minor proposals that would significantly ease the immediate burden for thousands of overseas Americans, if only by delaying implementation of the requirements for individual filers as has already been done for foreign financial institutions. Click here for those three points with a brief explanation of each.
The new regulations and the delayed deadline for compliance came in response to very vocal protests from the foreign financial institutions. FAWCO encourages individuals to let their legislators, newspapers, IRS agents and/or consular officials know if they are being adversely impacted by the impending FATCA reporting requirements or their current FBAR obligations. There may well still be time to make things better!
See below for some useful addresses.
IRS information for international taxpayers (FATCA, tax and FBAR obligations)
http://www.irs.gov/businesses/small/international/index.html
To contact the IRS from abroad:
http://www.irs.gov/localcontacts/article/0,,id=101292,00.html
To find your Congressperson’s website:
Click on “find your Representative”; once on your Representative’s website, enter the zip code of your voting address on the contact form, to show you vote in the district. In the subject heading, be sure to indicate this is a “request from an overseas constituent”.
To find your Senators’ websites:
Click on “Senators”; once on your Senators’ websites, enter the zip code of your voting address on the contact form, to show you vote in the district. In the subject heading, be sure to indicate this is a “request from an overseas constituent”.
Click here for a sample letter you can personalize and send to the IRS or your legislators, on the impact of FATCA reporting on you!
