ISAs for US citizens? Accountant reccomendations?

[PeterR]

I sent an email to the FBAR helpline FBARQUESTIONS@irs.gov outlining the above discussion and asking them to point me to IRS documents that would clarify this. They didn't do so but replied
"Your explanation is the correct way."

My email said

I have been having a discussion on an online expatriate forum
ISAs for US citizens? Accountant reccomendations?
as to how the aggregate value of accounts is to be calculated in order to determine whether the $10,000 threshold for FBAR has been reached.

I was under the impression that the maximum value on each account at any time during the year was to be used for aggregating (not just for reporting).

However someone else says:

There is no intention on the part of Treasury to yield the ludicrous result that if you have $9,000 in an account and move that money to another account you are required to file because you are deemed to have $18,000 in accounts "at any time during the calendar year".

Can you show me any IRS publication that shows clearly how the $10,000 is to be calculated and either confirms or negates my impression.

She quoted:
""A. Any United States person who has a financial interest in or signature authority, or other authority over any financial account in a foreign country, if the aggregate value of these accounts exceeds $10,000 at any time during the calendar year"
which appears to clearly state that the aggregate value at a particular point must exceed $10,000 (which it wouldn't in the $9,000 transfer example)

I quoted her back the folowing paragraph:
"The account value is the largest amount of currency and/or monetary instruments that appear on any quarterly or more frequently issued account statement for the applicable year. If a periodic account statement is not issued, the maximum account value is the largest amount of currency and/or monetary instruments in the account at any time during the year. If the account value exceeds $10,000 on any account statement at any time during the calendar year an FBAR must be filed."
This appears to suggest that the individual account values to be used for the aggregating in the previous paragraph are the maximums on each account at different times. But it may only refer to what is reorted on the face of the FBAR.

I am not yet convinced either way. The calculation method needs to be specified more clearly with examples.

[Punktlich2]

Originally Posted by PeterR

I sent an email to the FBAR helpline FBARQUESTIONS@irs.gov outlining the above discussion and asking them to point me to IRS documents that would clarify this. They didn't do so but replied
"Your explanation is the correct way."

My email said

I told you what Treasury's intent was in proposing the legislation and drafting the implementing rules.

I also said that notwithstanding the intent, there is ambiguity. You should not expect a government bureaucrat to go out on a limb and provide more information than has been authorized.

I added that the advisors to the wealthy, expensively paid, tell their clients to file protective reports. This is what you should do if you have the slightest doubt. And if you don't wish to reveal your bank account numbers unnecessarily, file Form TD F 90-22.1 with a statement that at no time during the year did the total value of your accounts exceed $10,000 but that there were several accounts and, taken at different times, the sum of the value of those accounts on different days "might" have exceeded $10,000.

For what it is worth, a higher standard is expected of American taxpayers living in the USA than of "accidental" American citizens abroad, most of whom don't pay tax anyway.

Inflation has made $10,000 into chump change. The escrow value of taxes, unpaid but earned salary, and a host of other foreign assets of expat Americans can easily exceed $10,000. Sometimes accurate reporting is impossible. Unless you are engaged in moneylaundering you are unlikely to be targeted.

And read this Supreme Court case, U.S. v. Bajakajian, 524 U.S. 321 (1972) United States v. Bajakajian, 524 U.S. 321 (1998)

I wonder what percentage of the population of Stanstead (Rock Island), Quebec, whose main street is the border with Derby Line, VT and many of whom happen to be American citizens by accident of birth in the nearest hospital in Newport VT, file FBARs. And think of those who happen to own incorporated small businesses in Quebec and don't file Form 5471 and so are, in principle, imposed with an automatic $10,000 penalty.