Tag Archives: Overseas Americans Financial Access Act

Part 1: #FATCA is: Maloney "Overseas Americans Financial Access Act" is the wrong answer to the right question

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Introduction and purpose …


On March 18, 2010, President Obama signed FATCA (“Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act”) into law. FATCA was:
– a revenue offset provision to the HIRE Act
– a series of conforming amendments to the Internal Revenue Code that:
(a) imposed requirements on Foreign Banks (Internal Revenue Code Sections 1471 – 1474); and
(b) imposed reporting requirements on individuals (Internal Revenue Code 6038D). Those reporting requirements are expressed in Form 8938.
On September 17, 2019 Representative Maloney introduced H.R. 4362 – “Overseas Americans Financial Access Act” – which introduced changes to BOTH the FATCA requirements imposed on Foreign Banks and requirements imposed on Individuals.
This post discusses ONLY the aspect to the Maloney bill that “relaxes” the requirements on Foreign Banks. I have writen a separate post discussing how the Maloney bill would impact individuals.
(Those interested in learning more about FATCA may be interested in my “Little Red FATCA Book)“.
The Maloney Bill is NOT The Same As SCE Previously Drafted!
The Good News:
The Maloney bill appears to apply to ALL Americans abroad – without regard to whether they are compliant with their U.S. tax filing requirements. (A previous version of SCE applied ONLY to Americans abroad who were compliant with their U.S. tax filing requirements.) Interestingly, the Bill (like Internal Revenue Code 911) would NOT apply to “permanent residents (Green Card Holders) in exactly the same way.
The Bad News:
The bill as drafted gives the banks the option to either continue to report on the depository accounts of Americans abroad or not. This is an option available to the bank. I (along with many others) suggest that banks will NOT be willing to engage with individuals with respect to whether they meet the requirements of the Maloney bill. The exact language of the bill includes:

(i) IN GENERAL.—Unless the foreign financial institution elects to not have this subparagraph apply, such term shall not include any depository account maintained by such financial institution if each holder of such account is—

The Maloney bill is too narrow in application
The bill as drafted applies ONLY to “depository accounts”. This means that the bill applies only to day-to-day bank accounts. It specifically does NOT apply to “custodial accounts”. This means that it excludes investment accounts, brokerage accounts, etc.
Verdict: The Maloney bill is clearly far too narrow. There is no reason why the Maloney proposal should not extend to ALL accounts (depository, custodial or any other kind of account) held by an American living outside the United States.
The technical analysis (which will NOT be of interest to the average reader) follows. It consists of Part A to Part D.
Thoughts and Suggestion
The Maloney bill is symbolic. It is not a serious attempt to alleviate the problems of Americans abroad. Representative Maloney should – as a Democrat – support Representative Holding’s “Tax Fairness For Americans Abroad Act of 2018”.
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