Related rules have also made holding US accounts more difficult for Americans overseas.  I had my retirement accounts frozen by their previous custodian: &quot;Sorry, our regulator doesn&#x27;t let us deal with Americans overseas.&quot;  I&#x27;m unsure whether that was sincerely &quot;doesn&#x27;t let us&quot; or meant &quot;would require a paperwork burden we find unacceptable relative to the money you few guys make us&quot; but either way I was given thirty days to move very-much-on-the-books money to another US financial firm.<p>It&#x27;s annoying as heck, particularly as the burden falls mostly on folks who are coloring squarely within the lines.  I pay enough for an accountant that I know with $10k of financial engineering the problem goes away for forever, which makes me think the guys with $30 million in untaxed capital gains that they&#x27;re <i>really</i> worried about are probably not getting meaningfully inconvenienced by this policy.