S. 1813, the highway (robbery) bill with amendments that let the Treasury Department ban credit cards from non-FATCA banks and give the IRS the power to take away expats’ passports, passed the Senate by a vote of 74-22 with 4 abstentions. The bill will now go to the House, where it will face off against H.R. 7, a competing surface transport bill by Rep. John Mica (R-FL).
I owe readers an apology for getting this bill’s name wrong last time I wrote about it. I should hardly have expected it to have such a sensible name as “Surface Transportation Act”. In fact it was originally called the “Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century Act”; now it has been given the grandiose new name of “America Fast Forward Financing Innovation Act”. Indeed, America is becoming increasingly “innovative” in how it finances highways, by finding new ways to tax, fine, and harass people who don’t use those highways in the first place.
OpenCongress.org has the roll call for the bill’s passage — those of you who vote in the U.S. may want to check what your senator did. Chuck Grassley (R-IA), who never met an anti-expat provision he didn’t like, went against his own party and voted in favour of the bill. More disappointingly, Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), who not two months ago went over to Switzerland to raise money from expats, turned around and gave a slap in the face to expatriates everywhere with her “aye” vote for this bill. Now we wait to see whether the members of the Americans Abroad Caucus will lift a finger to get these amendments stripped from the bill.
It’s so crazy
Crazy yes, but they also sound extremely desperate which could mean we’re winning behind the scenes.
I just informed my third party US based credit card processing company about this. They’re going to get their legal department involved to see if they can find a way to stop this.
I think, that lobbying effort (maybe ACA will get involved) has to be placed on the Members of the American’s Abroad Caucus. It will be telling to see if they vote against, or just roll over.
involved! I wished there was a edit function for one’s post… duh
The two senators from Maryland voted YES. My absentee vote will not go to them.
The 2 senators from Connecticut voted yes (Liebermann – Ind. and Blumenthal – D) http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm?State=CT
Ok with me! Who wants to visit there anyway? Will facilitate bills to make it easier to renounce/relinguish!
I am already a Canadian, but may I still defect? It used to work during the Cold War. I REALLY want to make a scene over this one.
I talked to two friends in the US today about this legislation. They’re as alarmed as we are. Although they’re quite used to this type of stupidity.
@KrispyMac
I am with you. I actually talked with my youngest son about potentially “treasonous acts” that I could do in front of the U.S. consulate. I have held off doing any of them because with my luck, I would probably get a cell without a window!
@all
I have heard from ACA that they are writing to every single staffer they know on the Hill asking them to block the Reid and Levin amendments in the House version and to be sure that they do not remain in the bill which may come out of conference. They would suggest that everyone contact their Congressman and any organizations you know that may have weight in Congress. You have to move fast.
If the US bans credit cards from some banks from a particular country that is a form of an economic sanction.
What will happen if all countries start imposing sanctions against the United States? Will they smarten up?
Maybe nobody needs to do anything since the biggest victim of the credit card ban is the United States itself.
Hey the United States just found a way to sanction itself. Ha!
I’d like to know how many Canadian snowbirds flocking to Florida, Arizona and California for the entire winter use Canadian credit unions? Many who winter in Florida are from Quebec and I can imagine they would be heavy users. Maybe the Office of Travel and Tourist Industries within the Dept of Commerce should hear about this. It’s serendipitous that my congressman is Bill Posey-R-Fla, opposes FATCA and relies heavily on tourist dollars to keep his state afloat. I would never have predicted that after 44 years of living outside the US I would write to a congressman at all, now I find myself writing to mine two days in a row!
Imagine a scenario where the United States won’t accept credit cards from a large number of countries. This would affect not only tourists but traveling business people as well.
The governments of the countries affected would have to issue travel advisories letting people know that if they go to the US they may not be able to use their credit cards.
So to work around this all tourists decide they will vacation anywhere but the United States.
All business people decide that instead of traveling to the US, their US counterparts will instead travel to the other countries. These US business people will now be enriching the economies of the other countries instead of the other way around.
Quebeccers LOVE Florida, just ask Celine. I can imagine their reaction when they learn about this, they are very well acquainted with fighting big government!
I have sent an email to my congressman, David Rivera, who is the elected congressman representing Florida’s 25th congressional district. The text is below. If you are a US citizen who lives outside of the US, these congressional websites generally will not accept email messages from persons whose address is outside of their respective districts. You can call congress and ask to talk to the Congressman’s office and ask whoever anwers the email address you can use as an overseas resident who, in accordance with US law, votes by absentee ballot in the district where you last lived and voted before relocating abroad. The Congress telephone number is +1 202.224-3121.
Here is the message I sent:
“Dear Congressman Rivera,
As my elected representative I respectively request that you take firm action to remove these amendments when this bill is voted on by Congress, or if not removed that you vote against this legislation.
Levin’s Amendment would bar the acceptance in the US of credit cards of foreign banks which are non-FATCA compliant and thus strike a devastating blow to foreign tourism which is vital to tourism jobs in Florida. FATCA, enacted in 2010 requires every foreign bank on the face of the earth to provide detailed reports on all their “US” persons, including those that are dual citizens of the countries where they live which,in most countries is a violation of their privacy laws and in some such as Brazil, requires Bra zilian banks to violate provisions of the Brazilian Constitution. The result is that foreign banks around the world are massively closing out the accounts of US citizens without which they cannot survive living abroad, probably half of which are spouses of foreign nationals or by birth dual citizens of those countries where they live.. You have correctly opposed the IRS proposal that would require US banks to supply similar reports to the IRS to forward to foreign tax authorities on their citizens with accounts in US banks.; Let’s see consistency in your vote on this bill.
Also part of this Surface Transportation bill is Senator Levin’s amendment to revoke the passports of US citizens living abroad who, for whatever reason, owe taxes to the IRS. Some 30 countries have exchange control laws, Venezuela being one, which prohibit persons with US citizenship resident there from converting local currency to dollars to remove from their country of residence to pay taxes to a “foreign” government on their income there. If enacted this provision will, in effect make them stateless and unable to travel un less they already have dual citizenship. Otherwise in order to survive they must renounce their US citizenship and become naturalized citizens of their foreign country of residence, if they do not already have dual citizenship. Buying dollars on the black market is a criminal offense in Venezuela as well as in many other countries with similar currency control laws.
The US is currently the 2nd largest tourism destination in the world, after France.. These amendments will not only seriously damage foreign tourism, which is so vital to our economy, but violate the UN Universal Human Rights Declaration which guarantees the right of every person freely leave and return to to any country, including their own.
I voted for you and as my representative I request that you stand up and be counted in opposition to these provisions of the Surface Transportation Bill already passed by the Senate.
Thank you and kind regards,
Roger Conklin
(by the way, letters sent to Congress by postal mail are very slow in being delivered and they may not make it before that vote. They have to be first sent to a facility to destroy Anthrax or any matierials that might be contaminating the letters. This even true if you hand-deliver correspondence to a senator or congressman on Capitol Hill – if it is inside of an envelope; even if it is not sealed. The only way to avoid this with hand-delivered correspendence is to not place it inside of an envelope when you personally deliver it.)
@Roger: Excellent letter. Thank you.
If you give your last address in the USA, in the congressman district and then explain in the text of the message that you have done this but now you are living abroad you will be able to send the e-mail.
Reblogged this on Stop Unconstitutional Double Taxation.
When you call ask specifically for the email address of the person, such as the Congressman’s legilative director, or communications director to which you can send an email expressing your concerns, for delivery to the Congressman or Senator. This is what our ACA people in Switzerland do and they regularly use this method. Preface your message with “Please deliver to Sen.(Congressman)” by name.
I sent an e-mail to my Congressman in my last Maryland District and in the beginning of my message I said that that was my last address in the US and that I am living in Brazil. The e-mail went very well. The same with my senators. The people from ACA even recommended that I did that. It worked.
Thanks Roger for your letter example. That is a good template to use.
The ACA has picked up on this bill and features a guest commentary by a DC lawyer in their Tax Law and News section of their site: http://www.aca.ch/joomla/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=512&Itemid=132
@Jefferson
Given this is the Senate Finance Committee it must be the work of Max Baucus then. Well I have an interesting story to tell about when Senator Max Baucus got into a physical fight in Cranbrook, BC with a local member of the BC legislature MLA Bill Bennett(Bennett is not related to the more famous Bennett’s of BC WAC and Bill Jr). This Bill Bennett is a pretty notorious figure around Victoria given his hot temper and the fact Gordon Campbell threw him out of cabinet twice.