Just saw this. Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney of New York City sent a letter to Tim Geithner requesting he start a FATCA and FBAR education campaign for expats. For some reason I don’t see this happening either and I think Maloney knows that too. I will note Maloney is becoming pretty powerful among House Democrats only a few ranks below(and supposedly a close personal friend) of Nancy Pelosi. I think perhaps pressure could be more successfully applied to US House members than Senators who are imbeciles led by Reid and Levin.
Maloney is the “lead” member of congress in the overseas americans coalition.
Here is the link with information on this coalition on the http://www.aca.ch website (American Citizens Abroad).
http://www.aca.ch/joomla/index.php?option=com_content&task=blogcategory&id=47&Itemid=74.
If Geithner were to write such a letter, it would probably start out with “We have you in our gunsights and are hunting you down.”
Good find Tim. I hate to say it, but this is probably just another letter for him to ignore. Although, coming from a Dem, he might pay a little more attention then he seems to when he gets letters from the Republicans.
You have seen the Miami Herald response to Rubio and Poseys editorial. I have posted it on 3 threads here to see that as many Brock readers as possible see it. Roger alerted me to it. I have done a quick reply to one silly reader’s comments, and probably should do more later.
If you haven’t seen it yet, it is here.. http://bit.ly/AcYnhl
I guess that disassembling the truth is part of Mr. Geithner’s job description. He is certainly being contemptous of Ms. Maloney’s conerns and more than a bit paternalistic with his “trust me” argument. She will never learn the truth if she isn’t willing to do her own homework on the issue.
@ just me, got it. Posey is my rep, so complaining to him about FATCA would be preaching to the choir. But imagine the further potential damage to Florida’s economy when tourists consider staying away because they can’t use their credit union sourced debit and credit cards? The “caisse populaire” is well used in Quebec and Florida’s tourism depends heavily on these snowbirds, to the extent a Quebec-Florida Chamber of Commerce now exists.
@Roger The so called FBAR-FATCA education program curriculum would look like your above post ‘If Geithner were to write such a letter, it would probably start out with “We have you in our gunsights and are hunting you down.”’
@just me I think this is an angle we need to exploit. We should be targeting travel agencies around the world with an information campaign urging them to inform their customers of the situation. If people stop spending tourist dollars in the US because they are afraid of getting stranded, then maybe Congress and the IRS will listen.
This legislation could likely create a panic situation for foreign tourist agencies around the world whose livelihood is largely dependent on sending foreign tourists to the US – the second most popular tourist destination in the world. This banning of foreign credit cards so far is only a threat for the purpose of bullying foreign financial institutions into yielding to the extraterritorial provisions of FATCA that the US Government is trying to force down their throats.
Educating expats about FBAR and FATCA is the last thing that the US government or the IRS want to do: Think of all of the lost penalties that they wouldn’t be able to fleece from the newly informed expats!
@bubblebustin Yes, preaching to the choir perhaps, but maybe Posey doesn’t get the connection between DATCA and FATCA, which was passed by Congress. He could take action to repeal FATCA as the best way to derail DATCA. That is what I would encourage him to do with your letter or email…
See this recent post…
http://isaacbrocksociety.com/2012/03/17/dualing-editorials-datca-vs-fatca/
@Jefferson D. Tomas… Good idea about travel agencies, and airlines too. I should google around and see if there is a Travel Agency lobbying association that would be interested in this. That would be a natural for them to oppose it.
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