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Hi. I'm Australian.

When Australian companies offer shareholder deals (like capital raises, offering shareholders a chance to get in first on favourable terms) there is usually a neatly printed prospectus that has a couple of pages in very explicit language saying "this is NOT FOR AMERICANS. Please do not show this to a US citizen. If you are a US citizen, you must disregard this booklet!".

It always strikes me as unfortunate just how badly the US is locking themselves out of otherwise quite good investment opportunities. I always assumed that these service refusals were due to AML laws using logic similar to what you describe. It is always the US. We're ok with Europeans, Asians, Africans and South Americans.



That’s due to US securities laws, not AML. The real reach through for Australia EY al. is FACTA, where any person with US citizenship invokes extra and onerous reporting requirements.


Or just changing tax residency. Moving from Norway to the US, brokerages will tell you to liquidate your assets or they'll do it for you, because they do not want to touch the reporting requirements to the US.




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