According to the Hill magazine a “son” of FATCA proposal by Carl Levin is heading for Senate approval as soon as today. Link below:
Key features:
Credit and Debit cards issues by non-FATCA compliant banks such as Canadian credit unions will not be accepted in the US anymore.
Update: Son of FATCA proposal attached by to Highway Bill by voice vote. Will try to provide more details. Absolute Disgrace.
Further Update: The amendment is so new it doesn’t even show up on the Senate website yet. Bill still far from final Senate approval. I should note that while I am not an expert on US politics I seem to have heard some place that the main sponsor of the Highway Bill California Senator Barbara Boxer earlier had indicated she was opposed to any non transportation related amendments being made to this bill. The US Senate won’t be in session until Monday so we should now more about what actually passed by then. I do feel though that for those of you still involved in US politics and American Citizens Abroad this might be a good opportunity to make a stand. Given the large number of expats from California this might be a very good opportunity to put some pressure on California Senator Barbara Boxer.
It just never ends does it? Carl Levin should definitely be retired.
https://twitter.com/#!/FBAR_Compliant/status/177870361864581120
First they want to screw up the stock market and banking system with FATCA and now they want to screw up US tourism and e-commerce. Keep going Mr. Levin, you’ll bankrupt the US before you know it…
Oh, great, more paranoia from these people.
Why would anyone travel to the US if they’re not completely certain their credit card will be accepted?
I know the article says, “According to Levin’s office, that could mean Treasury would be able to bar American banks from taking in wire transfers or *accepting credit cards from foreign banks that have been *found to impede* U.S. tax enforcement*.”
But if a financial institution or merchant feels there’s any doubt … it’s just easier not to take *any* foreign credit cards. Over and over, we’re finding that with these new US financial laws, commercial institutions err on the side of caution out of fear.
Yup, and the US will have created a hell of their own making.
The one bright spot in my Internet business has been foreign customers since US customers are really struggling. Imagine turning away the foreign customers that are making it possible for you to still keep the lights on. Unreal.
Credit and Debit cards issues by non-FATCA compliant banks such as Canadian credit unions will not be accepted in the US anymore.
So keep one visa card from a chartered bank but keep all your accounts in the Credit Union!
Well, If I do travel to the US ND and Mich will be off the list. Yet more reasons to renounce.
Since many Internet merchants use third parties to do credit card processing and many of these third parties are based out of the US, this new regulation could do considerable damage to US payment proviiders.
I use a third party payment provider based in the United States. If my customers encounter too many problems with their credit cards due to this new regulation, I might have to switch to a third party processor based out of Europe. I don’t want to do it but once it’s done there’s no turning back because there’s so much effort involved in recoding your website.
I don’t know much about economics. But if I understand this correctly, these guys have just launched a trade war against themselves.
Say it ain’t so Joe.
You got it exactly right Joe. Just when you thought they couldn’t make things any worse for Americans … they go and do it again.
I’d been tempted to switch to a European payment provider because their rates for online credit card processing are about 40% less than what I pay to my US provider. I put off switching but if Carl Levin wants me to take my business and give it to the Europeans, that’s what I’ll have to do. It will involve a one time investment of time but I’ll be saving 40% forever.
Any thing that affects US business will not be passed. Look at silly excuses to derail DATCA and to promote tax-evasion of foreign nationals. It will not be enforced, since it affects US banks. The credit card bill affects many small businesses and tourism. So it will not be passed. I am sure dual-citizens can find a work around. For example, it is not required to have an account to get a credit card. I have no accounts in the banks that issued me credit cards. Of course, most dual citizens try to avoid the USA. But real sufferers are un-informed or unsuspecting foreign tourists when they try to buy something, which results in loss of sales for small businesses, which hurts US businesses. The US press doesn’t care about unjust FBAR suffering of dual-citizens in Canada, but certainly exaggerate small loss to novelty shops on Miami Beach or in Las Vegas.
Guess what! Based on the headline I skipped the comments.
The US has gone crazy.
I have a “tingling” feeling that I won’t be a US ciitizen for more than 30-45 days in the future. My Gawd for my generation and younger… they should be ashamed of themselves, but they never will be. THIS IS WHAT I HATE ABOUT AMERICAN ENGLISH. Americans are cheeky, and it’a tough to translate that … Grrrrrr…..
I was talking to a young generational group of Brazilians tonight. Most of them 2nd generation US-lovers. I’ll talk about it the next time…
It’s getting so absurd that I believe that much of these FATCA laws will be eventually be repealed when their unintended consequences become noticed.
Accounting Today has a longer article:
This doesn’t sound like anything in S.1346. It sounds like something new … though I wouldn’t be surprised if part of it includes the garbage to directly penalise U.S. taxpayers using non-FATCA banks (e.g. treating the whole amount of any money in a non-FATCA acount as income unless they prove otherwise).
Okay, here’s the text of Levin’s amendment (SA 1818) to S 1813. Mostly this is different from the disastrous CUT Loopholes Act we discussed earlier. The main provision is:
Like Kris said, this will affect tourists (especially in Florida which gets a lot of people from those Evil Uncooperative Jurisdictions in the Caribbean). But it also affects online shopping. Even non-US people buying from non-US sites could be affected if a US payment processor is involved. For anyone involved in e-commerce, omg’s suggestion about looking into non-US providers looks very prudent.
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Long ago, in a country now barely recognizable, there were mandatory HS civics courses.
The section covering bills and making laws, I was taught that amendments and changes to a bill that are not germane to the purpose of the legislation were to be ruled out of order and not admissable.
Sen Levin is taking advantage of lax or non-existant enforcement of the rules of legislative procedure to insert regulations which would not stand scrutiny on their merit.
His committee is a version of the HUAC in disguise
rivka88
Welcome to DC lobbyonomics 101. This is exactly how legislation is done these days. Amendments don’t have to have anything to do with the purpose of the legislation. They could have added legalization of Gay Marriage to the transportation bill, if someone had wanted to.
@rivka88
Thanks for your description of what has happened from what we learned in our mandatory Civics courses in US high schools (do they still have those, I wonder?) to what we now see there — in the country barely recognizable. How in the world did it get to having “changes to a bill that are not germane to the purpose of the legislation and then not ruled out of order and not admissible”?
For an example of a whole new level of a police state check this out:
Tax Cheats Become Italy’s Public Enemy
“In addition to banning cash transactions, the effort has included an ad campaign comparing tax evaders to parasites. There have been headline-grabbing controls focusing on stores, hotels and restaurants in affluent Italian cities. For good measure, tax officials have also been stopping luxury cars and asking drivers to show their licenses, along with their most recent tax returns.”
Levin’s home state (Michigan) will be the most dramatically affected by this. The Ambassador Bridge between Windsor and Detroit is the busiest border crossing in North American. Plus, there is the Windsor-Detroit tunnel, the Blue Water Bridge and the crossing at Sault Ste. Marie.
Even if all those Canadians are headed to Florida, they will pass through and spend money in Michigan. And, Michigan needs all the cross border shoppers on their day outings. Most use debit or credit cards for their purchases.
This may be the final blow of the financial sledgehammer to force Canadian banks to comply.
I think the Canadian banks’ new motto should be “We Don’t Negotiate with Financial Terrorists”.
Here’s a small example of what they stand to lose if they stop accepting Canadian credit cards:
The Canadian advantage: Border-crossers give Buffalo a $1.25B boost
““When the economic bust came nationally, we had the Canadian shoppers coming across the border helping with our sales tax revenue,” he says. “While in the rest of the United State, sales tax revenue went belly-up, we didn’t see as much of a drop during the economic near-collapse in 2008-2009. As the Canadian economy was chugging along, even at a time when the American economy wasn’t, we were able to tap into those resource to help stabilize our own economy.””
.and, do Arizona and Florida really welcome all the snowbirds from Canada?
This is kind of like having a bipolar boyfriend. Half the time he adores you, the other half he wants to kill you. Time to run for cover.
Well that puts the final nail in the coffin of where I’m NOT spending my holidays for the rest of my life.
My family can come up to Canada and visit me here, and they can put their money in our economy instead of me putting my money in their bankrupt economy.
Hey Americans, come on up. Canada will accept your credit cards, no problem! And our border services folks are a lot more polite and welcoming than yours are. And the list goes on.