FBAR question

brigitte wrote:The difference is that if you are bailing outof your country and go to live abroad you still have to pay taxes. No?

Actually, under international tax law, from the moment you leave your 'old' country, until you immigrate/land in your 'new' country, you have one year where your wealth is deemed untaxable. It is in transit, in a type of no man's land. By carefully immigrating from country to country, you could legally avoid a lot of taxes. Another option is to live a certain number of months (probably at least six) in international offshore waters. Believe it or not - I have met people in the 1980's that did all these things! I think they paid more in legal and accounting fees than they ever would have in taxes.

senor viagra,i suggest you google FATCA and you will understand why FBAR also may affect we canadians [higher banking fees for us] and perhaps why INTERCAM  and other banks in the international community[offshore] will be reluctant to deal with excited states citizens. you will find how much lloyds of london will have to spend to comply initially and then annually. there are already banks[even in switzerland] telling merkins to close their accounts.
all this so the us treasury/irs can collect back and present taxes from even you perhaps.
buenos suerte-jeje!

Believe it or not I knew a lot of people who did just that. One of the biggest negociant of German wines sold his business in 76 at the top of German wine business just before the permanent crash of 77. He moved to Monaco bought a yacht, bought a couple of places onNob Hill in San Francisco and another place in South Africa and never was long enough in one country to pay taxes...

Arbon:

You certainly are capable of reading - please point out where there is a single whine over FBAR in this entire thread. Hate to say this but you are becoming as irrational as a certain other Canadian poster or wait, could he be a Czech poster?

I just want to say FBAR you :). Hey I had to turn one in. It was no big deal. I only have three accounts out of country, all at the same Actinver (old Loyds) address. It really didn't take that much time. The data was the same this year as last year. The only entry that changed (in my case, that went down) was the total maximum value in US dollars of each of my accounts.

I could not find an answer to the OP's questions in all the replies.

The specific terminology that the IRS uses: Affected foreign financial accounts are reported on FinCEN Form 114, Report of Foreign Bank and Financial Accounts (FBAR) (formerly TD F 90-22.1).

See: http://www.irs.gov/Businesses/Small-Businesses-&-Self-Employed/Report-of-Foreign-Bank-and-Financial-Accounts-FBAR for details.

The poster above who questioned what names were on the account (jointly held or not) was spot-on:
"Exceptions to the Reporting Requirement
Exceptions to the FBAR reporting requirements can be found in the FBAR instructions. There are filing exceptions for the following United States persons or foreign financial accounts:

Certain foreign financial accounts jointly owned by spouses;


If you follow US govt. instructions, and go to http://www.fincen.gov/forms/files/FBAR%20Line%20Item%20Filing%20Instructions.pdf

we find the answer to the question on page 6 (of 22):
"Exceptions:
Certain Accounts Jointly Owned by Spouses.

If you read there, the Treasury Dept. has 3 requirements you must meet to file jointly, otherwise you must file separate FinCEN Form 114 's.

Don't we just love how we now have to personally deal with the new innocuous-sounding government agents at FinCEN? => Financial Crimes Enforcement Network - with the power to start with $10,000 fines, for not reporting a $10,000 foreign account.

Best of luck to everyone at using the new BSA system to file electronically by June 30, getting to know yet another new US federal computer database website.

snowyco
Thank you for the US govt instructions for the FBAR form. I was unable to find the complete instructions for the form. It clearly states as a married couple we have to report. The choice is to report together once or each report separately but we have to report.
  When reading the instructions I noted that any business owning more than 50% of a foreign based business must file. This would mean owning less than 50% of a business would be exempt from financial disclosure. In Mexico I believe foreign entities cannot own more than 49% of a business. This would mean all corporations like Walmart, Ford, etc. are exempt from reporting their financial accounts. Nice business perk for an corporate investor looking at Mexico who want financial discloser minimized.
Bill