WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:13.920 Music 00:00:13.920 --> 00:00:19.430 Herald Angel: So, they say that the only certainties in life are death and taxes 00:00:19.430 --> 00:00:23.900 and even hackers have decided that death is easier to cheat. 00:00:23.900 --> 00:00:27.669 Life is about to get, way more interesting 00:00:27.669 --> 00:00:32.920 for more than 60 million Europeans, and we're going to find out why here is the 00:00:32.920 --> 00:00:36.040 taxman with the international exchange of tax information. 00:00:36.040 --> 00:00:38.945 Why don't we give him a huge round of applause? 00:00:38.945 --> 00:00:45.310 Huge applause 00:00:45.310 --> 00:00:48.140 Taxman: C3 rocks! Yeah, thanks for being 00:00:48.140 --> 00:00:54.541 here I deal with this stuff every day and I'm happy that some other people are 00:00:54.541 --> 00:01:00.050 interested in this because I have the impression the subject hasn't really made 00:01:00.050 --> 00:01:05.530 its way into the public. There's a lot of ignorance out there even among 00:01:05.530 --> 00:01:10.500 specialists. So, thank you very much for listening to what I have to go through 00:01:10.500 --> 00:01:18.920 nearly every day. What am I going to talk about? First, what are FATCA and CRS? 00:01:18.920 --> 00:01:27.350 FATCA is the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act. CRS, Common Reporting 00:01:27.350 --> 00:01:34.290 Standard. From now on don't remember what it stands for. It's FATCA and CRS. I'll 00:01:34.290 --> 00:01:39.420 give you some practical advice how FATCA affects you and what you can do about it. 00:01:39.420 --> 00:01:45.729 And, at the end, since we're on the political section here at CCC I would like 00:01:45.729 --> 00:01:54.520 to venture 2 or 3 thoughts on what FATCA and CRS means for, let's say, society as a 00:01:54.520 --> 00:02:02.390 whole. Let's see, here we are! This is the most important slide of my talk, so, if 00:02:02.390 --> 00:02:10.270 you got this one you can go home. What is going... What's going on here? You, the 00:02:10.270 --> 00:02:17.990 listeners, we're the pink dudes. [Pause] 00:02:17.990 --> 00:02:22.020 Rattling sounds ...with bank accounts, financial 00:02:22.020 --> 00:02:28.890 institutions and the parlance of FATCA and CRS. Banks will collect information from 00:02:28.890 --> 00:02:34.781 us, forward it to the local tax administration. In this case, the 00:02:34.781 --> 00:02:41.070 Luxembourg flag suggests we're in Luxembourg. The Luxembourg tax 00:02:41.070 --> 00:02:46.370 administration will collects this information and forward it to the 00:02:46.370 --> 00:02:52.200 designated countries. On the top, we see a foreign tax administration that doesn't 00:02:52.200 --> 00:03:00.010 have a flag. Imagine there's an American flag there. FATCA deals with forwarding 00:03:00.010 --> 00:03:06.590 information from - the German, Luxembourg, French, etc, tax administration's - to the 00:03:06.590 --> 00:03:16.170 United States. CRS the Common Reporting Standard took the idea, the model of the 00:03:16.170 --> 00:03:25.150 American's, copied it and convinced about a 100 nations to sign up. Here in the 00:03:25.150 --> 00:03:32.340 example, we see Germany, France, but China is among the nations that will receive and 00:03:32.340 --> 00:03:39.340 provide information. Russia is there, Chile is there, just imagine the list of 00:03:39.340 --> 00:03:46.620 signatories to the MCAA another abbreviation to the convention that was 00:03:46.620 --> 00:03:54.980 signed on the 29th of October 2014 grows every day. 101 Nations is already pretty 00:03:54.980 --> 00:04:03.870 big. If you look at this schema or at this structure there's something funny. They 00:04:03.870 --> 00:04:11.500 want information about you but they're not gonna ask you. Who are they gonna ask? 00:04:11.500 --> 00:04:18.620 Your bank. Banks are gonna get fined, banks are gonna get in trouble. But they 00:04:18.620 --> 00:04:26.240 gonna forward your information. One of the problems with FATCA and CRS is that the 00:04:26.240 --> 00:04:33.570 terms are rather vague and ill-defined. You think "yeah I've got a bank, I can 00:04:33.570 --> 00:04:40.860 handle my bank no problem" but have you ever thought that your lawyer might need 00:04:40.860 --> 00:04:47.979 to forward your information? Meaning you're a foreign -- you're a foreigner the 00:04:47.979 --> 00:04:53.550 lawyer in his ordinary course of business accepts deposits -- in this case retainers 00:04:53.550 --> 00:04:58.819 and client funds -- and has to forward this information. 00:04:58.819 --> 00:05:04.700 Many lawyers are not aware of this, I believe the law is ambiguous, the reason 00:05:04.700 --> 00:05:13.419 why I take lawyers as an example FATCA and CRS are pretty identical. Under FATCA the 00:05:13.419 --> 00:05:18.999 Germans negotiated that lawyers don't have to report any information, under CRS we 00:05:18.999 --> 00:05:26.650 don't have this exception. So, vague terms, ill-defined terms and a 00:05:26.650 --> 00:05:33.681 huge amount of data being thrown around in the world. I was introduced with the 00:05:33.681 --> 00:05:41.680 example of PayPal, PayPal in Luxembourg. My guesstimate is -- according to SEC 00:05:41.680 --> 00:05:47.009 filings, PayPal has about 150 million accounts, Europe is an important market, 00:05:47.009 --> 00:05:52.130 60 million accounts in Europe -- the tax administration's are going to receive 60 00:05:52.130 --> 00:05:58.949 million notifications about PayPal balances and that's not all I mean think 00:05:58.949 --> 00:06:07.399 about your bank whether your hold shares, whether you have the normal -- how do you 00:06:07.399 --> 00:06:13.069 call it -- deposit, a deposit account, a savings account all this information is 00:06:13.069 --> 00:06:18.840 going to be forwarded. Who is particularly affected? People with connection to 00:06:18.840 --> 00:06:26.020 foreign countries. The guy in pink will be a person with the contact, with the 00:06:26.020 --> 00:06:30.550 relationship, to a foreign country, I will show you what this relationship can look 00:06:30.550 --> 00:06:41.789 like. Okay we're at CCC, XML schema, nothing new for you, it's a tree. Don't 00:06:41.789 --> 00:06:47.460 worry, the more interesting stuff is going on here; the ambiguities in the schema. 00:06:47.460 --> 00:06:53.060 It is promoted by the OECD, the Organization for the Economic Cooperation 00:06:53.060 --> 00:06:57.479 and Development. Cooperation and development sound so good and at the end 00:06:57.479 --> 00:07:04.440 they just pass our tax information around. Some of the problems here, one of the 00:07:04.440 --> 00:07:12.029 problems, transliteration; a hundred and one nations as of December signing up. 00:07:12.029 --> 00:07:15.750 What about the information we're going to get from China? Are they gonna send 00:07:15.750 --> 00:07:23.530 Chinese characters? And imagine there's a German in China. A friend of mine, Robert, 00:07:23.530 --> 00:07:31.159 his name in China is 罗伯特, how is this information gonna come back? If you look 00:07:31.159 --> 00:07:37.979 at Bulgaria you have Cyrillic, Cyrillic, if you transliterate it to German is 00:07:37.979 --> 00:07:43.939 transliterated in a special way, the Germans have a DIN, a norm, to 00:07:43.939 --> 00:07:48.379 transliterate Cyrillic. That norm is not identical with how the French 00:07:48.379 --> 00:07:55.740 transliterate Cyrillic characters, so if the Germans ask about suspicious character 00:07:55.740 --> 00:08:00.639 Anton Chekhov and ask the French authorities, they might not talk about the 00:08:00.639 --> 00:08:05.550 same guy, because the spelling is slightly different. 00:08:05.550 --> 00:08:14.521 the ambiguities in this schema are in a way more irksome because here I just have 00:08:14.521 --> 00:08:20.900 three nodes, the header, the financial information-- financial institution and 00:08:20.900 --> 00:08:29.759 the person or account information. The OECD went overboard and has meta 00:08:29.759 --> 00:08:37.510 information on each of those nodes, describing what type of information is 00:08:37.510 --> 00:08:43.340 supposed to follow. So what's going to happen -- or how is anybody to interpret 00:08:43.340 --> 00:08:49.640 information where in the header you say it's new, on the FI node you say it's 00:08:49.640 --> 00:08:55.640 corrected and then the person/ account info you say it's gonna be deleted. How 00:08:55.640 --> 00:09:03.960 are we going to resolve this? For me an example of lawyers and technology, meaning 00:09:03.960 --> 00:09:11.030 anybody who works with this, will have some pain and suffering. 00:09:11.030 --> 00:09:18.370 Okay, practical advice. First of all, what type of information is going to be 00:09:18.370 --> 00:09:24.210 reported. You see here the name, address, the 00:09:24.210 --> 00:09:29.651 jurisdictions of residence, TINs, that's a tax payer information number, and the date 00:09:29.651 --> 00:09:33.600 of place of birth. So at one point I was trying to make the 00:09:33.600 --> 00:09:41.160 presentation a little more visual and I was looking for images for place-- place 00:09:41.160 --> 00:09:47.220 of birth and I found somebody who wrote to this-- to this request to provide this 00:09:47.220 --> 00:09:52.330 information -- home delivery. No that's not what is meant when the OECD asked for 00:09:52.330 --> 00:10:01.440 the place of birth it's the date of birth is important. If you have two Pierre 00:10:01.440 --> 00:10:08.990 Dupont that's the way to keep them apart, meaning your birth date information is 00:10:08.990 --> 00:10:15.610 relevant to keep you apart from other people having your name. The information 00:10:15.610 --> 00:10:22.810 itself is fairly technical, there's nothing really going overboard. The idea 00:10:22.810 --> 00:10:29.750 of FATCA and CRS was to catch individual tax cheats. We're not talking about 00:10:29.750 --> 00:10:37.520 corporations dodging taxes or anything. We are trying to-- or FATCA is trying to 00:10:37.520 --> 00:10:42.870 catch people who evade taxes. How did Americans in particular evade taxes in the 00:10:42.870 --> 00:10:51.060 past? They had a trip to the Bahamas with the suitcase full of money and deposited 00:10:51.060 --> 00:10:56.240 the money in an account there. Maybe they got a credit card and used the credit card 00:10:56.240 --> 00:11:02.310 in the United States to live off the interest that the account accumulated. 00:11:02.310 --> 00:11:09.720 Since Bahamas, Cayman Island, Turks, Caicos didn't have any exchange in regards 00:11:09.720 --> 00:11:14.500 to this information with the United States. These Americans went home free 00:11:14.500 --> 00:11:19.930 thus cheating the taxman. Later on they became a little smarter, instead of 00:11:19.930 --> 00:11:27.440 signing up for an account themselves they created corporations or trusts. So it's no 00:11:27.440 --> 00:11:32.790 longer in the name of your own name but in the name of your trust that you hold these 00:11:32.790 --> 00:11:41.860 funds. So the information that the banks are forwarding, is actually -- how to say 00:11:41.860 --> 00:11:48.000 -- it's fairly technical, they are not going overboard. That having said you 00:11:48.000 --> 00:11:53.220 might disagree with the whole idea of tax exchange-- of exchanging tax information 00:11:53.220 --> 00:12:01.450 but this is basically what you expect to see when you're looking for tax cheats. 00:12:01.450 --> 00:12:09.310 Number 5, not only your account balance as of the 31st of December so you still have 00:12:09.310 --> 00:12:15.570 a chance to change that today and tomorrow, if you take all the money out 00:12:15.570 --> 00:12:21.810 then nothing is gonna be reported, and your dividends and gross proceeds of-- 00:12:21.810 --> 00:12:28.040 gross proceeds for the sale of shares or other financial assets is going to be 00:12:28.040 --> 00:12:36.760 reported. That's-- that's a lot. Okay how do banks 00:12:36.760 --> 00:12:47.280 find out whether you are a potential tax cheat? I listed the three main criteria 00:12:47.280 --> 00:12:53.070 they're looking for. They ask you-- or if they know whether you're resident of 00:12:53.070 --> 00:12:59.760 reportable jurisdiction; if you are an American your birth certificate is 00:12:59.760 --> 00:13:05.351 sufficient. I've seen it with other banks that they come around now to ask "Show me 00:13:05.351 --> 00:13:09.950 a birth certificate", if you're an American, your information is gonna be 00:13:09.950 --> 00:13:17.810 reported to the United States, to the IRS. If you give the-- a mailing address or a 00:13:17.810 --> 00:13:25.760 residence address in a country abroad, that similar will trigger the bank to look 00:13:25.760 --> 00:13:31.120 a little more carefully at your account. What banks typically do is when they find 00:13:31.120 --> 00:13:38.800 this information they send you a self- certification. They ask you "Please 00:13:38.800 --> 00:13:48.940 certify this information". They basically ask you "Were your tax resident and is the 00:13:48.940 --> 00:13:56.300 mailing address correct?". And think about number three: Phone numbers. The phone 00:13:56.300 --> 00:14:03.130 number the bank has on record will trigger this additional search or sending out the 00:14:03.130 --> 00:14:09.260 self-certification form. Meaning, you've got a Google number with a zero zero one 00:14:09.260 --> 00:14:14.780 country code your bank is gonna ask you and if you don't respond, they're gonna 00:14:14.780 --> 00:14:22.990 send this information to the United States. Your tax account information. 00:14:22.990 --> 00:14:31.380 What can you do about it? Be local. Meaning check with your bank, whether all 00:14:31.380 --> 00:14:37.760 the information the bank has on file about you reflects a local residence. I have 00:14:37.760 --> 00:14:42.650 heard -I cannot verify it- that certain countries make this a business by 00:14:42.650 --> 00:14:50.400 providing easy resident certificates, meaning you can go to countries so easily 00:14:50.400 --> 00:14:58.310 obtain a certificate of residence then go to your bank and open an account. When the 00:14:58.310 --> 00:15:04.320 bank is reviewing the information it sees taxman local guy. 00:15:04.320 --> 00:15:08.820 This information doesn't have to be forwarded to another country because he 00:15:08.820 --> 00:15:18.040 supposedly is paying his taxes locally. Is there a legal option; is there a legal 00:15:18.040 --> 00:15:25.880 opportunity or is there a case for lawyers here? It's a little doubtful. 00:15:25.880 --> 00:15:32.850 In Germany, the Germans changed the law in the fiscal code regarding the 00:15:32.850 --> 00:15:40.500 consultation. Typically, or before the automatic exchange of tax information, the 00:15:40.500 --> 00:15:47.390 Germans asked you, consulted you, gave you a chance to voice your objections, before 00:15:47.390 --> 00:15:52.390 they would forward your information to another country. For automatic exchange of 00:15:52.390 --> 00:16:00.301 information like FATCA and CRS, this is no longer the case. Nevertheless, there has 00:16:00.301 --> 00:16:08.811 been a case in Germany decided by the fiscal court in Cologne, where the German 00:16:08.811 --> 00:16:14.170 tax administration wanted to forward information to the Turkish government in 00:16:14.170 --> 00:16:18.960 regards to some payment, a German company has made. 00:16:18.960 --> 00:16:27.050 So, the German company thought, their contact and Turkey would be burnt and they 00:16:27.050 --> 00:16:37.070 provided an expert opinion, that turkey does not safeguard tax information. The 00:16:37.070 --> 00:16:42.820 Turkish finance minister claimed the country, but the court was not convinced. 00:16:42.820 --> 00:16:50.090 So the court in Cologne said: "German tax administration, you can not forward this 00:16:50.090 --> 00:16:59.050 information to a country that doesn't follow data privacy laws!" Let's look at 00:16:59.050 --> 00:17:04.480 FATCA and CRS. We're talking about 60 million; hundred million accounts being 00:17:04.480 --> 00:17:12.919 distributed all over the world. The courts are not -I believe- not going to shoot 00:17:12.919 --> 00:17:20.409 down CRS and FATCA. They will not ask the tax administration to hear you, before 00:17:20.409 --> 00:17:27.470 your information is being passed on to another country. However, if you can come 00:17:27.470 --> 00:17:34.769 up with an expert opinion and say: "My information is gonna hurt me in Turkey or 00:17:34.769 --> 00:17:43.149 wherever", I believe the fiscal courts in Germany would issue an injunction, would 00:17:43.149 --> 00:17:51.110 prevent the German tax administration in Bonn, to forward the information. Think 00:17:51.110 --> 00:17:57.709 about turkey. Turkey, nothing incentive, but it's a third world country. Compared 00:17:57.709 --> 00:18:04.610 to any other third world country in the world, you can most likely obtain an 00:18:04.610 --> 00:18:10.600 expert opinion from -regarding any third world country- that they are not 00:18:10.600 --> 00:18:18.090 protecting data; that they are not protecting tax information in the country. 00:18:18.090 --> 00:18:26.690 They're gonna use it to shame you, so even though I'm not really convinced, that the 00:18:26.690 --> 00:18:33.940 legal solution is a good one, it will be interesting to see what the courts say in 00:18:33.940 --> 00:18:41.370 this regard. A little ray of hope was, that for another 00:18:41.370 --> 00:18:49.959 tax information exchange, the French, their Conseil d'État, recently decided, 00:18:49.959 --> 00:18:54.490 based on a law signed -oh, it wasn't a law, it was a decree by Louis XVI. NOTE Paragraph 00:18:54.490 --> 00:18:57.490 Laughter This was, I means, 00:18:57.490 --> 00:19:02.039 it must have been weeks before he was beheaded 1791, that they didn't want 00:19:02.039 --> 00:19:06.550 to participate in this other tax information exchange, which is a country- 00:19:06.550 --> 00:19:13.620 by-country reporting regarding companies. So maybe -we have not heard the courts 00:19:13.620 --> 00:19:22.889 yet- maybe, there's still something to come. Ok, let's look at the consequences 00:19:22.889 --> 00:19:29.510 of this. I'm very concerned about CRS and FATCA. 00:19:29.510 --> 00:19:37.250 On the one hand, anybody who is a little international, might run into problems. 00:19:37.250 --> 00:19:42.919 For FATCA, Americans have problems opening bank accounts in Europe, because the 00:19:42.919 --> 00:19:48.870 European banks think, it's not worth the trouble. So Americans are complaining 00:19:48.870 --> 00:19:57.979 about not being able to bank outside the United States. With CRS this is a little 00:19:57.979 --> 00:20:05.789 different, because a hundred nations; they can't always refuse foreigners. But you 00:20:05.789 --> 00:20:14.110 see, that the target of FATCA and CRS are individuals like you and me, who are a 00:20:14.110 --> 00:20:20.820 little mobile and travel and work across the globe. Our life is a little more 00:20:20.820 --> 00:20:28.929 difficult with this. The other thing is: If you think that you want to create a 00:20:28.929 --> 00:20:38.799 start-up in the space, the compliance burden is very high. This type of law 00:20:38.799 --> 00:20:43.570 prevents starts of innovation in the space. 00:20:43.570 --> 00:20:51.140 That's it already. I hope you have some questions, so I can elaborate a little 00:20:51.140 --> 00:20:57.320 more on individual details, that you might be interested in. Thank you very much. 00:20:57.320 --> 00:21:04.260 Applause 00:21:04.260 --> 00:21:07.230 Herald: Great! So, questions. If you have a question: Again, 00:21:07.230 --> 00:21:10.331 please, the microphones are here and here in the aisles, so 00:21:10.331 --> 00:21:14.160 already in the back. Person 1 from audience: Yeah, hi! I was 00:21:14.160 --> 00:21:18.110 wondering, if it was possible to know, if the information has already been traded or 00:21:18.110 --> 00:21:21.210 sent to other countries or things like that. 00:21:21.210 --> 00:21:28.480 Taxman: FATCA was originally implemented in 2010. The first exchange, I mean banks 00:21:28.480 --> 00:21:36.170 were required to submit the information, on the 30th of June 2015. So we've already 00:21:36.170 --> 00:21:41.459 seen two rounds of exchanging data with the United States. For the Common 00:21:41.459 --> 00:21:47.140 Reporting Standard, CRS, we're going to see the first exchange next year. Until 00:21:47.140 --> 00:21:53.099 the 30th of June, banks were required to submit the information, until the 30th of 00:21:53.099 --> 00:21:57.280 June. The tax administration itself has three more months, until the 30th of 00:21:57.280 --> 00:22:03.740 September, to forward the information to the respective countries. 00:22:03.740 --> 00:22:06.680 Herald: Great! Do we have a question from the internet? 00:22:06.680 --> 00:22:12.100 Angel: Yes. Somebody on IRC wants to know, because when you have an American social 00:22:12.100 --> 00:22:17.330 security number or someone, you can commit identity theft. Is the problem the same 00:22:17.330 --> 00:22:21.619 for German tax IDs or are they more immune to that? 00:22:21.619 --> 00:22:28.370 Taxman: To be honest... Okay, 2 parts to the answer: a) I'm not an expert on German 00:22:28.370 --> 00:22:34.529 tax numbers and identity theft, in the United States social security number is a 00:22:34.529 --> 00:22:39.039 lot more important. So, once you have social security number, you get loans and 00:22:39.039 --> 00:22:44.929 everything else. Typically when you apply for a loan with a car or wherever, you 00:22:44.929 --> 00:22:48.580 don't -- at least according to my experiences, which is very limited -- you 00:22:48.580 --> 00:22:55.269 don't provide your German social security number. The encryption of the information 00:22:55.269 --> 00:23:01.490 etc. is something I would not be worried about. I mean encryption in this space is 00:23:01.490 --> 00:23:08.029 a solved problem and the tax administration, they'll follow best 00:23:08.029 --> 00:23:15.660 practices, so that the information is going to be used by third party, I 00:23:15.660 --> 00:23:22.429 believe, is not a major problem. The other thing is, however, that everybody is 00:23:22.429 --> 00:23:26.140 basically considered... everybody who has connection with a foreign country is 00:23:26.140 --> 00:23:31.049 basically considered a tax cheat and will be treated differently from local 00:23:31.049 --> 00:23:37.860 residents. That is a problem I see. Herald: All right. From up front. 00:23:37.860 --> 00:23:41.370 Person 2 from audience: So, I've had the displeasure of having to file an F bar 00:23:41.370 --> 00:23:45.929 and, as part of the F bar, it asked for the highest amount of money in my account 00:23:45.929 --> 00:23:51.250 at any point in time in the year. And I filled all that out and so forth, as 00:23:51.250 --> 00:23:57.389 condescending as it was, but now you're saying the fact, actually, now wants to 00:23:57.389 --> 00:24:01.410 report my amount of money at the end of the year. The two are completely 00:24:01.410 --> 00:24:04.860 incongruent! Like how... I mean you're kind of spelling out that there's going to 00:24:04.860 --> 00:24:09.019 be a giant data mess. Is this going to factor into that? Do have any thoughts on 00:24:09.019 --> 00:24:14.690 this? Taxman: As I mentioned about FATCA, the 00:24:14.690 --> 00:24:21.380 date to report information is the 31st of December; that's for account balances. For 00:24:21.380 --> 00:24:30.539 sale of shares, any time during the year. For information regarding interest and 00:24:30.539 --> 00:24:37.309 dividends, any time during the year. Talking about "data mess": Yes, I'm pretty 00:24:37.309 --> 00:24:45.259 much convinced this will be a huge data mess. Think about for Germany: German 00:24:45.259 --> 00:24:55.341 public servants receiving 20 million records -- and this is only PayPal, we're 00:24:55.341 --> 00:25:01.009 not talking about credit cards, we're not talking about bank accounts. This is just 00:25:01.009 --> 00:25:08.110 one measly little company. So, and it's not only the Germans, and, by the way, 00:25:08.110 --> 00:25:12.799 American tax administration was completely overwhelmed by the implementation of 00:25:12.799 --> 00:25:19.590 FATCA. You could see it that they changed the technical requirements by changing the 00:25:19.590 --> 00:25:25.029 FAQs on the website. So, you went to the website a week later and found out "Oh, 00:25:25.029 --> 00:25:30.889 there're 10 new special characters we can't use", so the tax administrations 00:25:30.889 --> 00:25:35.720 across the globe, they are overwhelmed, and what's going to happen with these 00:25:35.720 --> 00:25:44.159 data... It will depend on each country and the data privacy standards. I mean, the 00:25:44.159 --> 00:25:50.850 Germans take this very seriously, but think about a small country whether it's 00:25:50.850 --> 00:25:59.049 Luxembourg or some country in the Caribbean, Panama: These guys, they lack 00:25:59.049 --> 00:26:03.340 certain practices; they haven't been, so to speak, under attack; they haven't been 00:26:03.340 --> 00:26:11.789 able to develop the defenses. So, a lot of data will float around the internet in the 00:26:11.789 --> 00:26:15.739 end, I believe. Herald: Okay, we have time for one short 00:26:15.739 --> 00:26:20.330 one and a very short answer, so can we go to the front here? 00:26:20.330 --> 00:26:24.600 Person 3 from audience: Yeah, one question: In which country are you tax 00:26:24.600 --> 00:26:29.369 resident when you are living in several countries for quite a long time in the 00:26:29.369 --> 00:26:32.799 year? For instance, 3 countries, four months. How is it decided? 00:26:32.799 --> 00:26:38.519 Taxman: Very good question and banks are supposed to figure this out, but banks ... 00:26:38.519 --> 00:26:43.230 quiet laughter Yeah, I mean the bank has to report, so banks are overwhelmed, so 00:26:43.230 --> 00:26:51.519 that makes you an expert in the different laws of each jurisdiction you're in. For 00:26:51.519 --> 00:26:59.119 Germany, I believe it's 183 days residence here. In the United States and Eritrea... 00:26:59.119 --> 00:27:04.480 Hey, something Eritrean and the United States have in common, place of birth is 00:27:04.480 --> 00:27:12.710 enough. In Eritrea, I was told, paying taxes more of an option, but okay. 00:27:12.710 --> 00:27:17.970 laughter So you are... the bank will ask you on the self-certification "Where are 00:27:17.970 --> 00:27:23.560 your tax resident?" and you are supposed to know, which is a little painful. I 00:27:23.560 --> 00:27:27.660 mean, you're for 4 months in the country. Are you tax resident? You don't know the 00:27:27.660 --> 00:27:33.480 funny tax laws everybody has. So, the burden is on you. I mean, the bank tries 00:27:33.480 --> 00:27:38.870 to put the burden on you, because you're not going to get fined, the bank is going 00:27:38.870 --> 00:27:43.610 to get fined. Herald: Great. Let's give the taxman a 00:27:43.610 --> 00:27:54.169 warm round of applause. [Applause] 00:27:54.169 --> 00:28:00.029 [Music] 00:28:00.029 --> 00:28:18.000 subtitles created by c3subtitles.de in the year 2019. Join, and help us!