Part I: Expats are not ... Expats are ...

Whenever an article appears about expats giving up their nationality, comments almost always include the words "don't let the door hit you on the way out" or "pay your fair share" and a few go so far to call us traitors.

The misconceptions about the problems of expats by homelanders currently are huge. The major problem is FATCA, a US requirement to which foreign banks have caved to report all American accounts to the IRS to catch tax dodgers.

So far banks around the world have spent around and estimated $6 billion trying to comply.

Why do they?

Because if they don't the US will grab 30% of their profits. I am not a fan of banks, don't understand why anyone does business with them rather than a credit union, but I can sympathize with them.

One solution is to cut Americans off from all accounts: no loans, no savings, no investments, nothing, rien, nada. Mortgages are called in. Just imagine if your bank called you and said, "We would like your full mortgage payment now and all your accounts are closed."

From experience I can tell you it is embarrassing to sit in front of your bank manager to be told you are persona non grata.

As a result American expats are having to chose between:

• Returning to the US giving up lives they've built abroad
• Never having the ability to borrow, invest, have regular banks transactions or save
• Turning all their financial resources over to their non-American spouse in name if married
• No longer being American if they are dual citizens

Expats do pay taxes where they live. America is only one of two countries that requires every cent earned be reported and taxed in America no matter where the American lives. The penalties for mistakes are huge.

An Fbar is also a requirement reporting all bank accounts. Penalty for not doing so is a 50% fine for each year missed. There has been almost no publicity for years so many Americans didn't know about. If a person didn't file on a $10,000 account for five years, they would have a fine of $25,000. If they didn't have the money to pay the fine, they couldn't borrow it because banks will not make loans to Americans.

The only way to be safe from reporting mistakes is to hire expensive accountants. One person over the past five years has paid close to $45,000 and he owed no taxes.

We expats and repats (those who have renounced) have tried to explain that if a little boy was born in MA and moved to FL, every cent he earned would be taxable in both states even if he never set foot in MA again. And then because MA pressured FL banks to report the accounts of those who had once been MA residents the FL banks decided to close their accounts. That poor boy wouldn't be able to bank in MA because he has a FL address.

Talk about being between a rock and a hard place.