[serge2k]

> It sounds like she didn't pay US income tax, she just had to file a tax return, which seems reasonable.

It's really not. That part about banks not wanting to serve american's is true. (Almost) no other countries do this type of thing.

[british_india]

Nonsense. FATCA was started by the US but now the OECD and many, many other countries around the world are copying it--as they should.

Earlier, banks were more than willing to support the tax evasions of Americans. But in case you were living in a cave, the last few years have seen those tax-evasion-enabling international banks fall one by one, admitting they enabled tax evasion and paying massive fines. So, the banks don't want Americans because they know so frequently those Americans are practicing tax evasion. They were burned and never again want to enable tax evasion. Rightly so.