Comments on: Deadline to update your bank details is Sunday or face account closure

By: K Schnelle

K Schnelle — Wed, 18 Dec 2013 22:17:00 +0000

Mi amigos, this rule is being enforced now, and appears it will be for all future years due to the Costa Rican government having recently signed an agreement with the U.S. to comply with new U.S.tax laws being forced upon foreign financial institutions (FFIs) worldwide. You may have heard of FATCA by now (Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act), and its cousin, FBAR (Foreign Bank Account Reporting). Costa Rica is only one of about a dozen countries in the world at this point who have signed the agreement with the U.S. Although enforcement of it will be delayed by the U.S. till July 1, 2014, FFIs are already gathering the info. They won’t necessarily just turn around and pass it on to the IRS (so they say), but must keep it handy in the event of an IRS inquiry that they must (supposedly) show criminal intent to the FFI before the info could be shared about any particular account holder. The CR banks are trying to get this info in a knee-jerk fashion before 12/31 deadline which happens to coincide with when Americans are supposed to value any bank accounts in which the balance exceeded $10k on any single day during that calendar year. They think this will show good intent with compliance with the FBAR/FATCA so they can stay in policital bed with Uncle (sam). One of the worst tax laws ever conceived, and is being forced upon the entire world. US arrogance at its best.

By: Ken Morris

Ken Morris — Wed, 18 Dec 2013 21:31:00 +0000

As usual, there are conflicting reports about whether or not these forms are needed now and by whose authority, plus I believe the forms have been required for a long time. I know I’ve had to comply with them multiple times.

Unfortunately, as with other so-called banking regulations, a lot of the enforcement seems to depend upon the particular bank, employee, and no doubt phase of the moon. Basically, when a bank employee wants to aggravate your life, there’s not a whole lot you can do except smile and follow orders.

Personally, I wouldn’t raise the issue of complying with a bank clerk, since you probably already have and there’s no sense asking for hassles, but I would make sure I had cash in case the bank does do something wicked like freeze your account.

Actually, personally I wouldn’t use CR banks any more than I had to anyway. I have accounts in two different banks here, one public and the other private, and IMO neither bank treats customers fairly. Fees that were never disclosed are levied, transfers are conveniently delayed to enable the bank to make free interest, critical facts like interest rates are hidden, and basically who needs to be treated like a peasant in a hacienda system? I’m far from in love with US banks, but at least they (perhaps because of consumer laws) don’t pull the kind of nonsense on customers that CR banks do.

PS. Have you ever had your signature challenged? I have at one of my CR banks. What can you do when a clerk with no training at all decides that your signature isn’t your signature?

By: mhogan

mhogan — Wed, 18 Dec 2013 21:25:00 +0000

And since Costa Rica leads the way in Latin America money laundering, Panama banks do not accept transfers from Costa Rican banks. I can understand moving about money from ill-gotten sources, but what gives CR (or any country for that matter) the right to dictate what we can and cannot do with money earned legitimately. Oh, I forgot, it wants to tax that money, even if they have no right to it (like after-tax money). It’s all about control and power and greed and social justice (aka expanding and rewarding government).

By: Timothy Williams

Timothy Williams — Wed, 18 Dec 2013 20:12:00 +0000

Here is an article regarding this matter from El Financiero in Spanish. Might be helpful to print it off and take it with you if your bank’s employees still don’t know what’s going on:

http://www.elfinancierocr.com/finanzas/Clientes-tiempo-domingo-actualizar-cuentas_0_428957104.html

By: Timothy Williams

Timothy Williams — Wed, 18 Dec 2013 19:53:00 +0000

Tell them you need to actualizar su informacion bancaria para “Conozca a su cliente,” Ley 8204.

By: roberto

roberto — Wed, 18 Dec 2013 19:52:00 +0000

Asociación Bancaria Costarricense (ABC) and the Consejo Nacional de Supervisión del Sistema Financiero, establecida en la Ley N.° 8204. The forms are in Spanish.

By: roberto

roberto — Wed, 18 Dec 2013 19:48:00 +0000

Went to 3 different Davivienda branches today and got 3 different lists of the requirements for a corporate account. Beam me up Scotty!

By: horst tuckow

horst tuckow — Wed, 18 Dec 2013 19:29:00 +0000

It would be helpful to know the Spanish name of the form or law…since hardly anybody at my bank hablas ingles!?

By: Pretty miffed

Pretty miffed — Wed, 18 Dec 2013 19:28:00 +0000

We go on to our BCR web site about six – eight times a week…never saw a notice about this…thanks ICR.

By: dc3 rangerover

dc3 rangerover — Wed, 18 Dec 2013 19:25:00 +0000

That is why you have a panama account folks