The US Saturday warned its staff to send families out of Juarez, Mexico, where it has a consulate, shortly before three of its staff were killed in drive-by shootings in the border city, famous for its violence. The US is now sending eight FBI investigators to join Mexican agents looking into the shootings, and US citizens are being warned to avoid the area. Gunfights have broken out in other border areas, miles away, as drug wars appear to be stepping up.
Mixed signals from banks, for US citizens in Switzerland
Updated 01:00 Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Swiss banks have become more cautious in their relations with US citizens in the wake of problems the country’s largest bank, UBS, ran into in 2008 with the IRS over unreported income on the part of some of its clients. GenevaLunch, in a survey of several Lake Geneva area banks, found that without exception the banks say they do not discriminate against US citizens, and they continue to welcome new accounts. Stories nevertheless abound in Switzerland of US citizens who received letters in early 2009 from their banks saying their accounts were being closed – but few of of these people will speak openly about such letters, in part because the IRS tax authority encourages citizens to report on others who are not “compliant” in filing taxes as well as listing all worldwide assets.
US Ambassador Beyer suggests UBS could turn over fewer names
A GenevaLunch reporting team this week spoke with several people to determine the extent to which the personal banking problem is real or a recent urban myth. The team talked to seven of the eight banks which returned its calls and to a number of US citizens resident in Switzerland, as well as with members of American Citizens Abroad (ACA). Some of those interviewed participated in an informal meeting in Geneva 12 November with the new US ambassador to Switzerland, Donald Beyer, where the banking problem was raised.
Beyer later in the day told WRS public radio in Geneva that some 9,000 Americans took advantage of an IRS amnesty for citizens overseas that ended 15 October. He suggested in the radio interview that the number of names UBS will turn over to the IRS is likely to be lower than the numbers – up to 50,000 – tossed about earlier in 2009 by international media.
US citizens in Geneva, Switzerland with Ambassador Donald Beyer, centre back, 12 November 2009
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – A small group of Americans met informally with their new ambassador, Donald Beyer, Thursday 12 November, the first such meeting in Geneva in some 20 years, according to the members of American Citizens Abroad (an international organization based in Geneva) who participated. The discussions were wide-ranging and included:
Zurch, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Bank Julius Baer joins the growing ranks of Swiss banks moving out of the US client managed wealth business. The bank announced that it has begun a gradual shift away from American customers, but the move is not hurting the bank’s overall wealth under management: the bank reports that in the first 10 months of 2009 total client assets increased to CHF234 billion and assets under management rose to some CHF 150 billion, up 17%, compared to a year earlier.
Spokesperson Martin Somogyi told GenevaLunch that details about the US client business are not available now, although the bank may provide them when it releases 2009 full year results in February 2010. He clarified that US citizens resident in Switzerland “who are tax compliant” are not part of this group and will remain bank clients.
Update 2 15:45 The IRS will extend the 23 September deadline,”a one-time extension of the deadline for special voluntary disclosures by taxpayers with unreported income from hidden offshore accounts. These taxpayers now have until Oct. 15, 2009″, the US tax agency announced 21 September.
The IRS announced Monday 21 September that it is pushing back its amnesty deadline for overseas US citizens and greencard holders to file some forms late. The complete announcement:
The Internal Revenue Service today announced a one-time extension of the deadline for special voluntary disclosures by taxpayers with unreported income from hidden offshore accounts. These taxpayers now have until Oct. 15, 2009.
Under special provisions issued in March, taxpayers with these hidden accounts originally had until Sept. 23, 2009 to come forward. Those taxpayers who do not voluntarily disclose their hidden accounts by the new deadline face much harsher civil penalties, where applicable, and possible criminal prosecution.
IRS officials decided to extend this deadline after receiving repeated requests from tax practitioners and attorneys around the country following an influx of taxpayer requests. By extending the deadline for a short period of time, the IRS is providing relief for those taxpayers who had intended to come forward prior to the deadline, but faced logistical and administrative challenges in meeting it. The extension will allow tax preparers and attorneys the necessary time to interview and advise their backlog of taxpayers with these hidden accounts, and prepare the necessary paperwork to qualify for the special penalty provisions.
The IRS also announced that there will be no further extensions.
Zurich, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Swiss bank UBS will close or transfer Wednesday 1 July, a month early, all US resident bank accounts that are not declared to US tax authorities, an unnamed official of the bank has told Swiss financial news agency AWP (20 Minutes and romandie.ch). The information could not be confirmed Tuesday evening, 30 June.
The report refers to account-holders who were earlier informed by the bank that it would close their accounts if they did not wish to transfer the money to a dollar-based account in the United States.
US President Barack Obama, while maintaining the trade embargo with Cuba, has eased some restrictions that particularly affect Cuban-American families: cell phone companies and television broadcasts to the island will be allowed and US citizens will be allowed to make unlimited family visits to the island and provide unlimited financial aid to their families. NPR
Three members of Congress, US Democrats, met with former Cuban President Fidel Castro after meeting with his brother Raul, who now heads the country. The Americans were part of a larger team of seven who visited the island, sparking reports that the two countries are prepared to start easing relations. Congress will consider a bill to allow US citizens to travel to Cuba, but the trade embargo, in place since 1960, is unlikely to fall soon, says a BBC reporter. But the Miami Herald, with a large Cuban expat population among its readers, was upbeat about the possibilities opened by the visit and Castro’s comments afterwards on a Cuban government web site.
A US circuit court of appeals panel in Manhattan has ruled that “reasonableness,” but not a warrant is needed to wiretap and search US citizens abroad, in what could be a critical, precedent-setting case. The decision follows the conviction of men accused of involvement in two bombings, one in Kenya and the other in Tanzania, in 1998. Their lawyers say they will appeal, that this is an issue for the Supreme Court to decide. New York Times
Title: Declaring Swiss bank accounts – a US perspective
Location: Geneva, Ramada Park Hotel
Link out: Click here
Description: Guest Expert: Scott D Michel, member, Caplin & Drysdale; H David Rosenbloom member, Caplin & Drysdale
Start Time: 11:45
Date: 25 Nov 2008
End Time: 14:00
