A Treasury official said in a conference call with reporters that more countries may join the “FATCA partners” list.
“We’ve had numerous conversations with other governments beyond the five that are cited,” the official said.
Asked about Canada’s exclusion from the list of five countries, a senior government official with knowledge of the matter told Reuters that the United States “was open to exploring a similar arrangement with Canada.”
Canadian Finance Minister Jim Flaherty said the ministry had raised “serious concerns” about FATCA with the United States.
“Today’s announcement appears to demonstrate an interest in greater joint government collaboration to address such concerns. We will continue to work with our American counterparts towards an approach acceptable to both our countries,” he said.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/02/08/us-usa-tax-treasury-fatca-idUSTRE8171G620120208
Looks like the Americans are losing the battle behind closed doors.
I don’t really understand if this is bad or good news for those of us with bank accounts in the “partner countries”. How does this dissuade European banks from closing my accounts?
Also, isn’t the US itself a huge tax haven? Will they be sharing all of the accounts in Delaware held by non-resident EU citizens under this sort of deal?
@Don Pomodoro
No. The agreement specifically refers only to UK, FR, DE, ES, IT “residents.” Supposedly though no ones account will be closed in a “partner” country
Tim why do you think the 5 countries are cooperating when Canada is not? Do they have something to gain in the short term?
@omghe’sstillanamerican
Why isn’t Canada cooperating? In all seriousness us. Its quite clear however crudely we have been putting pressure on Flaherty. The thing we need Flaherty to do is come out full stop against US citizenship based taxation as condition of being a FATCA “partner” and to get other countries to take that standpoint(Canada can push for it in the context of joint entry exit tracking system so the US can make sure people aren’t really living in the US when they say they are in Canada). I think there are enough of us here to make it happen hopefully. There is another article I am looking at right now in the NY Times that has some details on both Canada’s and China’s position on FATCA
In the end the US could end up losing far more than they ever hoped to gain from this legislation. If it wasn’t for FATCA all of us wouldn’t have become so aware of their UNJUST citizenship based tax system. Even though we live in Canada, we were clueless before FATCA that they did this.
I now actually have sympathy for the rich who want to flee America but are treated like criminals for simply choosing to live in another country. I’m sure there are also real criminals in that group but they paint them all the same way and it’s wrong. It’s not the greatest country in the world if you can’t leave … it’s like that horrible show where you can’t get off the island no matter what you do.
@omghe’sstillanamerican
I tried to warn as many people as I could in the US that going down this path would as you say increase sympathy for the rich for want to flee America. I think the US has now realized they now need the cooperation of foreign government to pull this off and the question is what price will governments like Canada charge for it. I don’t view the the agreements the US signed with these five countries to be anything more than a starting point with the rest of world Canada included (For years the US was saying there would be no special deals for anyone now there are going be deals for everyone). Remember the Global Bank Tax everyone was talking about a few years back. That it was unstoppable because both the US and major European countries were strongly in favor and everyone else would just have to get “in line” and then out of no where Flaherty single handledly got the whole rest of world against it and forced the UK, US, France and Germany to back down.
Here are some video clips from that time back in 2010.
http://www.ctv.ca/CTVNews/TopStories/20100518/bank-tax-battle-100518/
I sent the comments from the IRS spokeswoman about the FATCA to my parents. Even my own father views US citizenship “as not worth it for someone who lives overeas and will only visit infrequently…” My parents are very simple folks that typically see the world as the majority see it. They see the US Government, as a whole, as largely ineffective and only capable of passing bad laws. I have to agree with them on this.
Ahh.. the US Treasury knows where they need to go (the fiery place!). We expats are not people to subsidize welfare in America because we most likely do it one-way or another where we already live. I pay up to my eyeballs in taxes here. The US has no idea of what they are saying/doing.
I told my parents that they can meet-up with us in Europe. As angry as I am with this FATCA, I don’t want to step foot in the USSRA anytime soon.
Now when I go back to the consulate the next time and they ask me how my parents felt, I will tell “They said US Citizenship isn’t worth it!” 🙂
Well, it does appear that the US version of FATCA ( DATCA) is what is supposedly going to make this 5 country pack work. If the IRS doesn’t get the data from US banks on France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom citizens, there cannot be a reciprocal agreement, or so it seems to me….
I would think that Geithner and Company are not backing down from their regulations to require US banks to report on non residence interests, and they probably told Rep. Charles Boustany, R-La. to go pound sand when he wrote them back in September to stop doing this. It would be interesting if some reporter would find out.
http://www.accountingtoday.com/news/Congressman-Tells-IRS-Back-off-Bank-Disclosures-60322-1.html
So, do you think Citizens of France, Germany, Italy, Spain and UK are going to leave their money in the US now, or will it move somewhere else?
@Just Me
Remember “residents” of the UK, France, Germany, Italy, Spain. My understanding is in fact under these agreement the reguirements placed on US domestic banks will be even more onerous than anything currently on the table. It will be interesting to see the US domestic political reactions to this especially in places such as Texas and Florida.