Whilst cooling my heels in Singapore and having a read of the Today Newspaper today I read an article that mentioned that the Singapore Taxation Dept has approved a reguation today to exchange information with other countries in regard to an individuals banking details and records, particularly with cooperating countries' IRS Departments.

This may not affect many on Thai Visa but I suspect that it may effect many offshore workers living in Asia. Whilst I do not know if Singapore was ever considered to be a safe banking haven I always was of the opinion that it was not open to foreign Govt requests for banking records of foreign Nationals.

Food for thought and please no flaming flamers for flaming sake

Whilst cooling my heels in Singapore and having a read of the Today Newspaper today I read an article that mentioned that the Singapore Taxation Dept has approved a reguation today to exchange information with other countries in regard to an individuals banking details and records, particularly with cooperating countries' IRS Departments.

This may not affect many on Thai Visa but I suspect that it may effect many offshore workers living in Asia. Whilst I do not know if Singapore was ever considered to be a safe banking haven I always was of the opinion that it was not open to foreign Govt requests for banking records of foreign Nationals.

Food for thought and please no flaming flamers for flaming sake

Khunandy

The US government started to ask for details in Swiss accounts a while back and I don't doubt any bank will give all details requested by IRS, rather than risk being banned from doing business in USA.

Do you have a link?

Do you have a link?

http://money.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=768260

BTW, the US is pesently pushing the issue but in the recent past the EU has gotten their panties in a bunch over this issue as well:

http://www.bilaterals.org/article.php3?id_article=9829

Not sure what the practical effects of changing the rules in Singapore would be. Apparently more info will get transferred, but under US law I was already required to pay taxes on any interest that I earn in Singapore, and given how squeaky clean and law & order oriented Singapore is, and how closely cooperative they generally are with the US, I never would have assumed that they would be unwilling to share my financial data with the IRS. I guess maybe it will shake out some unreported income from some people, a lot of US expats probably get $5 or $10 a year interest from DBS that they don't bother to report.

Edited March 9, 200917 yr by OriginalPoster

I started an account with CitiBank in Sing, and they told me from the get go, they will report the money to the US....

Lucky me, but I don't have anything to hide... so have fun with it Uncle Sam

Good thing I opened my accounts there as a Thai citizen, different spelling and no connection to my US social security #.

President Obama has been very clear in his statements that he is going to address the issue of offshore tax havens, both for private individuals and corporations.

The BBC world service ran a (Panorama?) program on this late last week - The issue is not so much you or I hiding a couple of thousand away from the tax man, but the fact that many other financial accounting issues can be hidden too, such as liabilities (something which Norther Rock et al managed to do until the debts caught up with Joe Tax Payer).

I started an account with CitiBank in Sing, and they told me from the get go, they will report the money to the US....

Lucky me, but I don't have anything to hide... so have fun with it Uncle Sam

Not quite true.....they do not automatically report money to the US, however, if requested to do so they can and will provide the info but only if you are a US citizen.

I have an account with Citi in Singapore and had to sign a form saying I am a non-us citizen and therefore not subject to IRS etc etc...