Swiss expats caught in middle of US tax conflict
Switzerland’s banks no longer want American clients but now Swiss citizens living in the United States are finding it hard to keep accounts back home. Rules and regulations have become more complicated, and fees have gone up as financial institutions pass on the extra costs to their customers. Swiss expatriates are increasingly irritated by their dealings with banks in their homeland and are venting their frustrations online. “I have been living in the United States for the past four years and at the end of last year, the Zurich cantonal bank told me all my accounts were being shut down,” said one expat in a forum on swisscommunity.org, the platform for the Swiss abroad. “Now what? How will my clients pay me now?” “I can no longer make payments via internet. And opening an account with a US or a Swiss bank is next to impossible,” pointed out another. “You have to fill out pages and pages of paperwork and it’s too expensive because you have to pay for every single ...