EBF advisor: Roger Kaiser

Publication date: 22 February 2019

Executive summary

The so-called “Accidental Americans” are U.S. citizens who have been granted automatic citizenship under U.S. civil law because they were born in the U.S. but now live outside the U.S. and are facing burdensome administrative requirements resulting from the fact that the U.S. tax duties and obligations on worldwide income are imposed on all U.S. Persons i.e. all U.S. resident individuals and all U.S. citizens. With the aim to fight against tax evasion, FATCA and its subsequent Inter-Governmental Agreements require Foreign Financial Institutions to trace U.S. reportable accountholders and to collect their U.S. Tax Identification Numbers (TIN). Because Accidental Americans may have difficulties to provide such data, the US Treasury has relaxed this requirement for a grace period which will terminate on 31 December 2019. The EBF has again called the US Treasury to extend this relief beyond 2019 and ideally to adopt a permanent one.

EBF contact:

Roger Kaiser, Senior Policy Adviser Tax & Crime, r.kaiser@ebf.eu, +32 2 508 37 11