The New Pope is American! Does He Have FATCA Filing Obligations?
Knowing that Pope Leo XIV is a U.S. Citizen, the foreign compliance geek in me brings up this question ~ Will the new Pope have FATCA reporting obligations?
Yesterday, May 8th 2025, around 1.4 billion Catholics all over the world got a new spiritual leader. 1 Through a secretive process, a group of 133 eligible cardinals elected an American, Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost, as the new Pope Leo XIV.
From this article in The Washington Post2, we gather that the Pope has voted in the U.S. general elections via an absentee vote as recently as November, 2024.
Therefore, knowing that he is a U.S. Citizen, the foreign compliance Tax Buzz geek in me begs to ask this question ~ Will the new Pope have FATCA reporting obligations?
The Pope is not the first who sent our tax geek antenna “Buzzing”!
Lately Ellen DeGeneres, Britney Spears, have also been in the news about moving overseas. We cannot forget Meghan Markle! Other high profile U.S. Citizens who have come in the IRS’ dragnet are former U.K Prime Minister, Boris Johnson.
Interesting ~ don’t you think?
