Will the US government somehow use FBAR information to force you to repatriate money you put abroad during hyperinflation?
Posted by John T. Reed on
A Facebook reader sent me this about putting money in foreign bank accounts.
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Offshore out of reach would seem the only safe option.
During hyperinflation I would think the US would use the FBAR to demand repatriation of overseas accounts and impose draconian penalties for failure to do so. I suspect they'd have similar compliance as they did with executive order 6102.
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And here is my answer:
There is no precedent for demanding repatriation of overseas accounts. And the main purpose of overseas account is so you can BE overseas or abroad in places like Canada where you do not have to cross the ocean to get there. I expect that you would leave the US ASAP when it became Venezuela like and stay abroad for the duration. They could try to seize assets you left behind like a house. In our case, I expect my two local sons would occupy all three of the homes we own so that the government would be acting against a homeowner when two thirds of Americans are still homeowners.
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Demanding repatriation and the unspecified draconian penalties are unconstitutional. If America stops being America, I have not book to sell you for how to deal with it.
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Also, I am not aware of any such repatriation and draconian penalties in Germany and Austria in their hyperinflation in the early 1920s or in other recent hyperinflations like Venezuela or Zimbabwe or Argentina.
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My impression of the books I have read about hyperinflation is that the people with gold or foreign currency outside of the country outsmarted their home government. The governments, bad as they were, sort of figured that the owners of foreign assets were in the drivers seat and welcomed the fact that those assets would sometimes come back into the country.
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There was a time in Nazi Germany when Jews could leave. Over time they increased the cost with higher and higher exit vias fees. But I do not recall any Jews having to repatriate money from, say, Switzerland during that period. The border is a sort of anti-dictator weapon. Magical. God could get the money repatriated. But even dictators have to respect some borders.
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We would likely voluntarily be sending back to our kids here in various ways, like maybe opening accounts abroad for our kids and getting them debit cards so they could spend the foreign money in the US. A bad US government or any other government would likely welcome such remittances as the dictatorships in Latin American now do. They do not take the local relatives of US illegals hostage and demand repatriation of all the US assets of the illegals here.
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There has been inflation since 400 BC. I researched those things as much as I could including reading non-fiction and fiction books and watching a silent film that was fiction but realistically represented what actually happened in Vienna. What you imagine might happen did NOT happen anywhere ever.
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The diary of Vienna then depicted people desperately spending all day every day trying to find food, fuel, medicine, and foreign currency. My solution is for I and my readers promptly leaving the US then spending 90 days in an unhyperinflated nation. It need not be one whose currency you have. For example, you could go to Majorica—a Spanish Island in the Mediterranean and live off your Canadian money via SWIFT wires or a Canadian ATM card.
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Generally, when Americans go abroad, they automatically get a 90-day tourist visa. In some cases, they have to leave and not come back to that nation within 90 days (that is the Schengen Area rule) or you can send two 90-day periods in that nation per year (New Zealand rule). In some cases, you may only have to touch base in another country on the 90th day then go back to where you were.
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I have also said that I might move to a US border town like Lynden, WA during the hyperinflation and simply shop in Canada using my Canadian currency in Canada. I could enjoy a rent-controlled house to live in in WA and get my food, fuel, and medicine in Canada with my CAD bank account. I expect the US government would be glad to let me do that albeit preferring to just get all of my Canadian money at once.
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I could imagine my splitting my year in Australia and New Zealand on 90-day tourist visa with visits to Singapore in between because 4 x 90 = 360, not 365. I could also imagine spending two 90-day periods in Canada and maybe the other two in Western Europe possibly finessing the extra five days in London which is not in the Schengen Area.
.
I have some readers here who actually have experience with hyperinflation in their lifetime. What do you guy think about the ability to use foreign bank accounts as I am suggesting during US hyperinflation?
.
.
And here is my answer:
There is no precedent for demanding repatriation of overseas accounts. And the main purpose of overseas account is so you can BE overseas or abroad in places like Canada where you do not have to cross the ocean to get there. I expect that you would leave the US ASAP when it became Venezuela like and stay abroad for the duration. They could try to seize assets you left behind like a house. In our case, I expect my two local sons would occupy all three of the homes we own so that the government would be acting against a homeowner when two thirds of Americans are still homeowners.
.
Demanding repatriation and the unspecified draconian penalties are unconstitutional. If America stops being America, I have not book to sell you for how to deal with it.
.
Also, I am not aware of any such repatriation and draconian penalties in Germany and Austria in their hyperinflation in the early 1920s or in other recent hyperinflations like Venezuela or Zimbabwe or Argentina.
.
My impression of the books I have read about hyperinflation is that the people with gold or foreign currency outside of the country outsmarted their home government. The governments, bad as they were, sort of figured that the owners of foreign assets were in the drivers seat and welcomed the fact that those assets would sometimes come back into the country.
.
There was a time in Nazi Germany when Jews could leave. Over time they increased the cost with higher and higher exit vias fees. But I do not recall any Jews having to repatriate money from, say, Switzerland during that period. The border is a sort of anti-dictator weapon. Magical. God could get the money repatriated. But even dictators have to respect some borders.
.
We would likely voluntarily be sending back to our kids here in various ways, like maybe opening accounts abroad for our kids and getting them debit cards so they could spend the foreign money in the US. A bad US government or any other government would likely welcome such remittances as the dictatorships in Latin American now do. They do not take the local relatives of US illegals hostage and demand repatriation of all the US assets of the illegals here.
.
There has been inflation since 400 BC. I researched those things as much as I could including reading non-fiction and fiction books and watching a silent film that was fiction but realistically represented what actually happened in Vienna. What you imagine might happen did NOT happen anywhere ever.
.
The diary of Vienna then depicted people desperately spending all day every day trying to find food, fuel, medicine, and foreign currency. My solution is for I and my readers promptly leaving the US then spending 90 days in an unhyperinflated nation. It need not be one whose currency you have. For example, you could go to Majorica—a Spanish Island in the Mediterranean and live off your Canadian money via SWIFT wires or a Canadian ATM card.
.
Generally, when Americans go abroad, they automatically get a 90-day tourist visa. In some cases, they have to leave and not come back to that nation within 90 days (that is the Schengen Area rule) or you can send two 90-day periods in that nation per year (New Zealand rule). In some cases, you may only have to touch base in another country on the 90th day then go back to where you were.
.
I have also said that I might move to a US border town like Lynden, WA during the hyperinflation and simply shop in Canada using my Canadian currency in Canada. I could enjoy a rent-controlled house to live in in WA and get my food, fuel, and medicine in Canada with my CAD bank account. I expect the US government would be glad to let me do that albeit preferring to just get all of my Canadian money at once.
.
I could imagine my splitting my year in Australia and New Zealand on 90-day tourist visa with visits to Singapore in between because 4 x 90 = 360, not 365. I could also imagine spending two 90-day periods in Canada and maybe the other two in Western Europe possibly finessing the extra five days in London which is not in the Schengen Area.
.
I have some readers here who actually have experience with hyperinflation in their lifetime. What do you guy think about the ability to use foreign bank accounts as I am suggesting during US hyperinflation?
.
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