I recently came across this information from the IRS:

http://www.irs.gov/businesses/small/...148849,00.html

And was wondering -- do any Americans living in Switzerland comply with this? Is the requirement to file only in years with an aggregate balance over $10,000? Do funds held in Swiss pillar 2/3 count? From the form:


"Who Must File this Report:

This requirement came into effect (IIRC) with year 2005 tax returns. I know when my husband opened his account (he's Swiss, I'm American) the bank told him they do not want the account reported as they (the Swiss bank) really prize the bank secrecy laws.

I report my foreign accounts, but I don't have a Swiss account so therefore it's a non issue for me here.

George W isn't wasting enough of your money? You want to give him more even though you live in a different country?

Taxation while living abroad was not a GW decision.

After a Supreme Court decision, it is written in the Consititution that only businesses are liable for income tax/gains. Even in the IRS handbook, it dsays you are not liable. There is no such law.

for more info =

another interesting covering taxes =

Ok, so admittedly I stopped watching after 30 seconds, but I'm going to go out on a limb and say I've heard this story before.

Supreme Court ruled that the federal government (note: federal only, this had nothing to do with the States' ability to collect taxes) violated the Constitution by collecting income taxes. 5th amendement violation, if I remember correctly.

Fortunately (at least insofar as it means I haven't been unnecessarily throwing money at the government for the last few decades), the 16th amendment changed the constitution to enable the taxation of any income.

More info can be found with a Google search - I'm guessing Wikipedia has some good info on that and the pollock case.

And if I'm way off base with regards to the content of this video, do please elaborate, but I'm afraid watching entire YouTube videos simply doesn't fit inside my allotted websurfing periods.

Lance

Umm, your location says Toronto, so you are Canadian? If so, forgive me if I don't take your advice on US taxes.

There are steep penalties for failure to report a foreign bank account which I personally would not want to incur. Further, I know of an expat who, when going back to the US for a visit, was told by a passport control officer after he scanned her passport "Thanks for paying your taxes, Ma'am."

You Americans have lower taxes. I guess you could afford to pay Swiss taxes and George W. Canadians pay as much as the French.

Well, if you do any wire transfers from the foreign account to to the US account, they'll know about your foreign account through the SWIFT info anyways.

It's possible to send transfers from the Post Office or Western Union, as opposed to out of one's personal account. As I said, non-issue for me - I don't have an account here so don't have any Swiss account to report. I do comply by reporting my other foreign accounts.