Vestra Wealth: Thousands of UK citizens could be caught under FATCA

Thousands of ‘accidental Americans' could be unwittingly caught by the Foreign Accounting and Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) from July, leaving them exposed to US tax liabilities, Vestra Wealth has warned.

FATCA was enacted in 2010 by the US Congress to target American tax payers who try to avoid paying what they owe by using foreign accounts. The rules require foreign financial institutions to report to the US Inland Revenue Service (IRS) information about financial accounts held by American taxpayers. However potentially hundreds of thousands of UK citizens who have US green cards enabling them to work in America are also likely to be on the radar of the IRS, according to Vestra Wealth. This, Vestra Wealth said, is because most people assume that green cards expire, but in reality ...