Friendly reminder if you are required to file an FBAR.

Required if you had at least 10K USD in aggregate of foreign bank accounts for even one moment last tax year.

File to treasury, not to IRS

The form is here:

http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/f90221.pdf

The Thai bank exchange rate s/b Dec. 31, 2011 rate as shown on http://www.fms.treas.gov/

I read that rate as:

31.29 Thai baht per dollar

Someday just like the Swiss the us gov will convience Thailand to report all Accounts over 10K ...... The penalty for willfully not reporting is the GREATER of 100,000 or 50 percent of the amount of the account . For each year ...... 2 mill 1 mill 500k 250K 125K ......5 years you go from 2 mill to 25K ! lol ...... 6 years you are broke !

Someday just like the Swiss the us gov will convience Thailand to report all Accounts over 10K ...... The penalty for willfully not reporting is the GREATER of 100,000 or 50 percent of the amount of the account . For each year ...... 2 mill 1 mill 500k 250K 125K ......5 years you go from 2 mill to 25K ! lol ...... 6 years you are broke !

Some day I think is soon. Those reporting laws are going into effect fairly soon, yes?

One thing to remember is form has been revised again; (Rev. January 2012), so use the current download rather than what you may have used last year.

hey...I gots mine... the report submitted to the Treasury Dept in Detroit last month...

tutsiwarrior is an upstanding US citizen.

The new banking laws are on hold until 2014 in most cases , The IRS penalty is 25 percent of the highest balance over the last 8 years ....... EVEN IF YOU DID NOT OWE TAX .... it's pretty heavy handed

There is also a penalty for not providing your tax number :

The Internal Revenue Service is giving overseas banks an additional year before they will have to make any withholdings from U.S. customers who fail to disclose enough identifying information to U.S. tax collectors.

The second round of IRS guidance issued today on the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act, or FATCA, doesn’t require banks to make 30 percent withholdings on non-compliant U.S. customers until Jan. 1, 2014. Other withholdings on gross proceeds and income that might be indirectly sourced to the U.S. won’t start until Jan. 1, 2015.

What this means is that by 2014 your Thai account will be reported to the IRS unless they get an exemption by 2013. By 2014 overseas banks are required to report on their efforts ..... whatever that means ! lol

So yeah it's sooner then later ..... but people are lobbying to have this repealed which is part of the reason for the delay.

I actually didnt realize how far along this has become since 2011 and how widespread it is.

What this means in short is that Thai banks would be REQUIRED to withhold 30 percent of an account of a US passport holder that does not give them an IRS tax id number ..... and would report the name to the irs obviously.

Someday just like the Swiss the us gov will convience Thailand to report all Accounts over 10K ......

Did you create a new account just to copy and paste what I said ? lol

FBAR = FUBAR!

my heart goes out to you American friends.

new war toys for war on terror,

pay up

new war toys for war on terror,

pay up

Filing this form requires no payment at all except the postage.

Like someone said the cost to file is no more than postage. And the form takes about 5 mins. to fill if you have your passbook handy.

I did call Kasikorn Bank about this though and was told categorically that Thai banks routinely report transactions to a Thai central entity (she told me the name but I forget) but not (routinely) to the US or any place else.

So, my take on this is that it simply gives the US Govt. a stick to whoop your ass with if they so desire - a desire likely only to be aroused by suspicious activities on your part, in which case, they might formally request your bank details based on some international agreements there surely are covering these things. But I really doubt they will ever go to this length simply to teach a lesson to some forgetful schmuck.

Still, I would file promptly. This is a Govt. that deals with people they don't like by blowing their heads off. And once the US has that base in U-Tapao (it's not military, yeah right) you and me and every mother's son in the LOS could potentially get a night time visit from a drone.

You seem to miss the entire point of the new LAW ..... it's to mandate reporting from forein banks , not to make them have the info if requested. ..... This is a new LAW for 2014

The reporting thing for the Thai banks to the U.S. is being phased in. Nobody said YET. So not even sure why you bothered calling your Thai bank.

And once the US has that base in U-Tapao (it's not military, yeah right) you and me and every mother's son in the LOS could potentially get a night time visit from a drone.

You seem to miss the entire point of the new LAW ..... it's to mandate reporting from forein banks , not to make them have the info if requested. ..... This is a new LAW for 2014

The US can't mandate reporting from foreign banks. They can't mandate what Thai banks have to do. Come on, there's

the little question of sovereignty. What they can mandate is what their citizens have to do - that's what would be a (US) law.

Now, if Thai banks choose to (like maybe the Swiss) to voluntarily report to the US Treasury then that's their prerogative. Though why on earth would they would want to take on this huge hassle for mostly a bunch of school teachers and

mongers living day to day? Honestly, I wonder if the combined assets of all the American losers holed out in Pattaya

equals $10K.

...

Honestly, I wonder if the combined assets of all the American losers holed out in Pattaya

equals $10K.

That's rather offensive. Not to mention factually wrong. I started this thread for informational purposes. Not an invitation to bash Americans in Thailand. Thank you very much.

The US can't mandate reporting from foreign banks. They can't mandate what Thai banks have to do. Come on, there's

the little question of sovereignty. What they can mandate is what their citizens have to do - that's what would be a (US) law.

No, but the foreign financial institution can tell their American customers to piss off and close their accounts because they don't want to deal with the red tape for US citizens. Which is exactly what many are doing. I had the last of my offshore FX accounts closed last month because of this.

Now, if Thai banks choose to (like maybe the Swiss) to voluntarily report to the US Treasury then that's their prerogative. Though why on earth would they would want to take on this huge hassle for mostly a bunch of school teachers and

mongers living day to day? Honestly, I wonder if the combined assets of all the American losers holed out in Pattaya

equals $10K.

Don't have a clue, do you?

You seem to miss the entire point of the new LAW ..... it's to mandate reporting from forein banks , not to make them have the info if requested. ..... This is a new LAW for 2014

The US can't mandate reporting from foreign banks. They can't mandate what Thai banks have to do. Come on, there's

the little question of sovereignty. What they can mandate is what their citizens have to do - that's what would be a (US) law.

Now, if Thai banks choose to (like maybe the Swiss) to voluntarily report to the US Treasury then that's their prerogative. Though why on earth would they would want to take on this huge hassle for mostly a bunch of school teachers and

mongers living day to day? Honestly, I wonder if the combined assets of all the American losers holed out in Pattaya

equals $10K.

Sovereignty/jurisdiction is there -- "Sledgehammer' Enforcement of New Reporting Requirements for Non-U.S. Financial Institutions

The most consequential part of the FATCA legislation is the severe penalties that the law imposes on foreign financial institutions that are found not to be in compliance with new mandated reporting on financial activity of their U.S. clients. Foreign financial institutions not complying with the rigorous reporting requirements will be subject to a 30 percent withholding tax on all U.S. sourced payments.

It is important to understand clearly what that implies: any financial institution anywhere in the world not voluntarily complying with FATCA (Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act, passed in 2010) will find that 30 percent of any U.S. sourced payment (such as a Microsoft dividend, a maturing principal payment from a U.S. corporate or government bond, and so on) will be withheld. Because U.S. stocks and bonds are so widely owned globally, virtually all financial institutions everywhere in the world receive substantial U.S. sourced payments, mostly on behalf of clients who have no connection to the U.S. Allowing 30 percent of these payments to be withheld will not be an acceptable option. That is why we expect almost universal compliance with the June 2013 deadline for foreign financial institutions to enter into a formal agreement with the IRS to comply with FATCA disclosure requirements."

I wonder what the combined total of your assets is and what country you are a loser from?

Thanks for the reminder Jingthing,

Do you know if you are suppose to list the amount in the actual currency held or convert the amount to USD?

WS

Line 15 is listed in USD based on the exchange rate posted above .... Line 15 being the amount of your account

Thankx for the explanation on the banking penalty ..... as a side note I would say ....... Geeeeee It would be sooooooooo unusual for the US to tell the rest of the world what to do !

Thanks for the reminder Jingthing,

Do you know if you are suppose to list the amount in the actual currency held or convert the amount to USD?

WS

Yes convert to USD based on the FMS conversion rate on Dec 31, 2011.

FBAR = FUBAR!

my heart goes out to you American friends.

[media=]

[/media]

Dennis Hopper and Bruno Ganz are perfectly cast in Wim Wender's The American Friend...another story about the remarkable Mr Ripley...

(look closely and you'll see tutsiwarrior lurking about)

Bruno: 'sounds interesting...mebbe we should get tutsiwarrior involved...'

DH: 'nah...he's a stinkin' engineer and ye never can trust them bastids...'

Yes, thanks Jing, this is indeed good info. As for what the US can or cannot do, I agree it might not be right, but like an old girlfriends Mom told me when I asked her if the Euro's like us, she said, they like our money!

Still, I would file promptly. This is a Govt. that deals with people they don't like by blowing their heads off. And once the US has that base in U-Tapao (it's not military, yeah right) you and me and every mother's son in the LOS could potentially get a night time visit from a drone.

I think it's time for an adjustment on your tinfoil hat!

http://bsaefiling.fincen.treas.gov/Enroll_Individual.html

Can you file this electronically with the BSA efiling system?

new war toys for war on terror,

pay up

People seen to miscomrehend the "War on Terror." The terrorists are the minions of the US Government and the cowering victims are its citizens.

...

Honestly, I wonder if the combined assets of all the American losers holed out in Pattaya

equals $10K.

That's rather offensive. Not to mention factually wrong. I started this thread for informational purposes. Not an invitation to bash Americans in Thailand. Thank you very much.

Jesus, lighten up. I think it was a joke. I am American and took no offense. But then I'm not holed up in Pattaya either. (-: Why is it that Pattayans are so sensitive?

I have heard on good authority that the US Embassy in Bangkok already has access to see the balance of EVERY bank account in Thailand no matter the nationality of the owner.

They refer to this data mostly to verify information before issuing visitors visas to the USA.