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Attn Americans wanting to open a bank account in Japan!

Mark of Zorro

先輩
4 Oct 2012
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Here is a fun fact for you. Only two governments that require expats to pay income tax are: That of the United States of America and her dear sister, Eritrea. Yes, Eritrea the third world tin pot dicatorship. (sigh)

So every year you have to file an income tax return to the United States of Taxes even if you clearly meet the exclusion. This is to ensure you are paying your fair dues as a citizen of the empire, where highest among all rights is the right to be taxed, since 1913.

So what does that mean to you expats in Japan? Well it did not mean so much until last year. I am not sure of the exact details of how and why. If I look it up I might break something around the house in a fit of rage. But I do know that last year "an agreement" was made between the U.S. government and her colony of Japan that all Japanese banks would from now on require that American Empire citizens submit their social security number. And you cannot open a bank account now without one.

I say "agreement" but I cannot imagine there was anything bilateral about it.

And now consider how this is being used to track you. Before you could keep a low profile by keeping your bank account under 100,000 yen.

The good news is as follows: You do not need (as yet) to report you social security to the bank for an old account. Next, Japanese bank accounts never close unless you specifically demand it be closed. If you have your card, remember your pin, and have your bank book (or any two of the three I believe) you are safe. If you have any two of the three you can use the other two to recover the third, perhaps dependent on a hanko and details such as where you worked when you made the account. So write those down. You don't know where you will be ten years from now.

But of course, if you are a good little citizen of the empire, totally in favor of false wars and making chickenhawks rich, you have absolutely nothing to worry about. Just make sure you know your social security number because you will pretty much need a bank account to get your salary in Japan...and then of course forward what you can for the upkeep of the global hegemony.

And perhaps, if you are lucky, you dutiful taxpayer, the next war of profits will be on Eritrea, and the battle cry will be "There can be only ONE!"
 
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Source, please.

Google "FATCA Japan"

I didn't see any mention of SSN, though I didn't check very thoroughly. The figures also don't jibe with what I saw on a site aimed at Japanese bankers.
 
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Thank you Mike Cash.

Glenski, the original source was some papers I got from the bank explaining about FACTA in both English and Japanese. But I was in a rage when I left and details such as the name FACTA escaped me when I wrote the post.

This also may be found interesting by some: US and Eritrea tax: Canada's FATCA capitulation Eritrea, USA, Canada | Caperi

Quotes:
"As of this past week, the Canada Revenue Agency works for the Internal Revenue Service. The subordination of Canada's tax authority to its American counterpart came in the form of a euphemistically named "Intergovernmental Agreement" pursuant to the US Foreign Accounts Tax Compliance Act (FATCA)."

"FATCA, passed by the US Congress in 2010, is an extension of America's anomalous and larcenous practice of demanding taxes from people, regardless of where they reside in the world. The United States is one of only two countries that engage in this disgraceful practice (Eritrea being the other)."

"More likely, Canada caved to America's overt threat that nations not complying with FATCA would face a 30 percent withholding tax on all US-based investments. "

Of course to the many citizen sychophants of my country who just roll over on command, this must be quite a bore.

The U.S. government is a bully, an empire and a colonizer.
 
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The agreement

Some relevant snippets (I'm not going through the whole thing):

ImageUploadedByTapatalk1422315892.975479.jpg

ImageUploadedByTapatalk1422315906.496237.jpg

ImageUploadedByTapatalk1422315916.064783.jpg


Note that banks have the option of requiring the info even from people not specifically required to do so under the agreement, so I won't be surprised if the anal bankers implement a blanket policy on every existing account as well.

For most US citizens, "TIN" = "SSN".
 
Gosh, if you're legal with everyone, besides providing another data point or two, what's the problem?
 
Gosh, if you're legal with everyone, besides providing another data point or two, what's the problem?

If you're not doing anything illegal in your house, why don't you take the curtains off your windows?
 
Gosh, if you're legal with everyone, besides providing another data point or two, what's the problem?

People in my business who don't belong there, making me jump through hoops and causing me headaches.
A refusal to support bullies.
A desire to commit civil disobedience.
A desire to be a responsible human.
A desire to be off U.S. government radar as they keep getting more totalitarian and less respectful of sovereignty.
The fact that as the rules multiply, it becomes harder and harder to be perfectly sure if you are legal, or safe despite minor infractions.
A simple refusal to bend over.
 
Fair enough. I don't expect the US government will come bother me in Japan and audit my Yahoo Auctions furikomis. Still, good to know.
 
Fair enough. I don't expect the US government will come bother me in Japan and audit my Yahoo Auctions furikomis. Still, good to know.

To be fair to ろうきん, they're not a bank; they're a credit union.
 
Here is a nice page from the Treasury Dept. that says how much aggregate assets you must have before you must file for this.
Do I need to file Form 8938, "Statement of Specified Foreign Financial Assets"?

Basically, here is the relevant figure:
If you are a taxpayer living abroad you must file if:

  • You are filing a return other than a joint return and the total value of your specified foreign assets is more than $200,000 on the last day of the tax year or more than $300,000 at any time during the year; or
  • You are filing a joint return and the value of your specified foreign asset is more than $400,000 on the last day of the tax year or more than $600,000 at any time during the year.
Now, what reaction has anyone heard from the Japanese financial institutions after they were contacted by the U.S. about complying with this? I mean, really! Do they expect banks that DON'T deal overseas to comply with this?
FATCA was enacted in 2010 by Congress to target non-compliance by U.S. taxpayers using foreign accounts. FATCA requires foreign financial institutions (FFIs) to report to the IRS information about financial accounts held by U.S. taxpayers, or by foreign entities in which U.S. taxpayers hold a substantial ownership interest.

As for changing one's nationality to avoid any of this, c'mon! Why on earth should someone be forced to go to such an extreme?! It's more than just a "headache", as johnnyG put it.
 
This isn't between the U.S. government and Japanese banks. It is between the U.S. and Japanese governments. There is Japanese legislation/regulations to implement it here. There are guidelines the banks may choose to implement regarding which accounts to report and which not to report, or they are free to implement blanket reporting if they choose to do so.

My citizenship process was already in the works before I ever heard of this and has nothing to do with it.
 
Don't forget that Japan has a similar reporting requirement: If your aggregate foreign assets total 50mil yen or more, you have to file a yearly report with a tax office here in Japan. Yes, the threshold is higher, and the form not as detailed as form 8938 (and some of its associated forms, the numbers of which are listed in part IV of 8938)..., but as a reporting requirement, the gist is there.

And if you happen to die here, I think your inheritors will pay higher j-tax rates on those assets, than a US person inheriting foreign assets would.
 
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