Count of all unwitting Americans safe for now

All Dutch citizens who also happen to be subject to tax in the United States, the so-called unintentional Americans, will also be safe in their bank account after September 1. The Dutch Banking Association reports this on Friday after a letter to Parliament from State Secretary Marnix van Rij (Finance, CDA). The letter is a response to a letter from the US Treasury Department to the Dutch Ambassador in Washington.
Unwilling Americans with balances below $50,000 had already heard from banks that they could keep their account even if they didn’t have a US tax identification number (TIN). The banks now conclude on the basis of the American letter that they can now also make this provisional promise for the group with more than 50,000 euros on the account.
The fact that the accounts of involuntary Americans (Dutch citizens who are considered Americans in the United States, for example by birth in that country or by an American parent) were at risk, is due to the very broad offshore tax liability in the UNITED STATES. The United States has been trying to enforce this tax obligation for years by requiring banks to transmit the data of unintentional Americans among their customers to the American tax authorities IRS. Banks must provide name, address, balances and tax number (TIN) for this.

High fines
For the proportion of unwitting Americans who were at risk of losing their bank account, the problem was in them: they either don’t have a TIN or don’t want to apply for one because they don’t think they’re Americans.
For a long time, Dutch banks believed that without providing such a TIN, they risked being seen as banks by Americans as “improper‘. This could have resulted in heavy fines or exclusion from the international financial system. To avoid this, unwitting Americans were told that without a TIN they would lose their bank account.
The Ministry of Finance and the Dutch ambassador have been discussing a solution to the group’s problems with the United States for years. Two years ago, the banks promised not to close accounts until September 1 this year, pending the outcome of those talks. The banks have now extended this until after September 1, regardless of the account balance.

The letter from the US authorities does not provide a definitive solution. Detailed guidelines are still being developed. The idea of ​​it’tipsThe Americans are already making it clear: if banks have followed the guidelines and still cannot provide TINs, they know for sure that they are not considered “non-compliant”. The Americans write that now that they have promised this, they hope that Dutch banks will no longer close accounts immediately.
The banks are now confirming this. “Due to the new letter, no accounts will be closed after September 1, and the banks hope that the United States will continue to work on a permanent solution to this issue,” wrote the banking umbrella.