Hi Everyone,

Desiree, here sending greetings from London. I'm a Swiss/Italian/American working in the wine industry, and hope to relocate to Switzerland in 1-2 years time. I'll be researching in depth on how to make this move properly and with a game plan for my partner and I.

Looking forward to receiving feedback,
Des

Welcome to the forum Desiree.

Lots of useful info in the various sticky threads here on the forum and I also suggest you get hold of a copy of "Living and Working in Switzerland" by David Hampshire. It's full of useful info for both before and after you move. You can order it from your local bookshop or via the internet.

I assume you're up to date on the American tax filing side of things, but just to let you know only UBS, Credit Suisse and PostFinance will consider American clients for a basic checking/salary account. A business one may be another story entirely. Before making any firm business plans I would contact the head offices of these 3 here in Switzerland to find out whether you could get a business account or not.

Hey Medea, thanks a lot! I have a Swiss passport, so I'm sure it would be okay, unless dual citizenship is going to be an issue?

Sorry, but no. You have the American "taint" regardless of any other nationalities you hold and as such will need to sign a W-9 form to allow the bank to send the account info on to the IRS. Because of the headaches FATCA has caused to both worldwide banks and the millions of American living and working abroad most banks here won't accept Americans at all now - hence the reason you only have 3 choices. Since any business account you have signatory rights to would also have to be reported to the US on an FBAR form, the banks just won't bother to give you an account. Keeping any FATCA required reporting down to just personal accounts cuts the costs to the banks. If you don't have signatory rights on the business account it might be possible, but don't assume so.

I'd just drop (renounce) the US-American passport. It costs a bit money, but you'll be heavily relieved.

Many of my Swiss/American friends did. They don't seem to miss anything either.

Good idea if the OP isn't planning on living in the States in future. Visiting is easy enough, just have to apply for an ESTA like everyone else who comes under the visa free travel arrangement.

You can arrange to do this at the US Embassy in London. Bear in mind that it'll cost you 2,350 bucks to do so though. But balance that against any annual fees you may need to pay your tax advisor to keep everything straight year on year.

Hi Guys,

It has been on my mind to renounce it due to the headache it is to maintain the citizenship. It's purely to help our future be more concrete. We do not plan on living in the States again, and given my profession (working in the wine industry), Europe is the ideal place to live. Also on a side note, I do speak Swiss-German and Italian fluently...

Above all, many thanks for your input and feedback. I really appreciate it, and hope to get my head around in making this transition back as smooth as possible.

Well, if you do want to do it you might find this of help.

http://catseyesap.com/crd/Consulate%...%202017.08.pdf

It's a collection of people's experiences with renouncing/relinquishing at various embassies/consulates around the world. You can check on the UK one to see what sort of experiences people have had dealing with them.

www.isaacbrocksociety.ca was started many years ago by someone who got caught up in all this taxation/FATCA stuff and you can find a lot of useful info about renunciation, FATCA and Expat Taxes, etc, there.

Thanks a lot Medea - super helpful and will have to consider this over.

You can always hope that Congress will get its finger out of the pie and actually pass legislation to make US taxation residency based rather than on citizenship. But the problem with that is they're still arguing over it so may not actually become law any time soon and if/when they manage it it'll still be a few years probably before it actually comes into force.

Honestly, unless you have a pressing need to hang on to the citizenship I wouldn't bother to keep it. If you haven't paid into the social security system and Medicare then all it's really giving you is the ability to enter the States without the need for a visa or ESTA. ESTAs are easy to obtain - I got one last year for a trip to the States. I expected to be asked questions before it was approved since I'd renounced back in 2013, but no - I got the approval within just a few hours and the ESTA is valid for 2 years or until your passport expires whichever is the shorter period.