Just received another update on the activities of Democrats Abroad’s FBAR/FATCA Task Force. Previous posts can be found here and here.
From: demcan@sympatico.ca
Subject: FBAR/FATCA Relief Efforts Underway: Tell Your Story Now!
Date: May 3, 2012 1:11:52 AM GMT-04:00
Dear Democrats Abroad member,
Your FBAR/FATCA Task Force has created two instruments to drive home our efforts seeking relief from potentially draconian fines and penalties in relation to new tax filing requirements. We are gathering data from overseas Americans to use in advocating for amendments and reforms to FATCA. We need your urgent participation in this effort!
1. Take our survey to record your circumstance as an overseas citizen and taxpayer. It is completely anonymous and can be found at http://www.surveymonkey.com/FATCA_FBAR
2. Tell us your story of managing your tax affairs as an expat American. If you have a tale of woe and frustration to tell then please go to http://www.ExpatTaxStory.us where you can post your story on a completely anonymous basis.
The Task Force has received an invitation to appear at an IRS hearing on May 15 in Washington. Having results from the survey as well as the website will strengthen our position at the hearing. So please complete at least the survey by May 9.
QUICK UPDATES ON OUR ADVOCACY EFFORTS:
Since our last update a few weeks ago:
Meeting with IRS and Treasury: Your FBAR/FATCA Task Force has continued to work with senior staff at both the IRS and the Treasury Department. Indeed, thanks to Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney’s efforts, Task Force member Joe Smallhoover attended a meeting in Washington DC to accommodate the presentation by various groups representing Americans Abroad to IRS and Treasury officials of our concerns about the tax filing and compliance requirements. A summary of that meeting is expected shortly.
Submission to IRS on FATCA Proposed Regulations: We have made a formal submission to the IRS in response to that agency’s request for responses to its February 8 release of proposed FATCA regulations, and we have asked to be invited to speak at the May 15 hearing on those proposed regulations.
Meeting with National Taxpayer Advocate: We are arranging a meeting with Taxpayer Advocate Nina Olson; whose 2011 report to Congress is highly critical of IRS handling of overseas tax filers.
DPCA Resolution on FBAR and FATCA: We have submitted a formal resolution to the DPCA Resolutions Committee for discussion at the May global meeting in Mexico. If passed, Democrats Abroad will then submit that resolution to be considered for inclusion in the Democratic Party 2012 Platform.
BUT WE STILL NEED YOU!
Please click here to take our anonymous survey and here to post your anonymous expat tax story.
Your DPCA FBAR/FATCA Task Force,
Joe Green (Canada) Chair (demcan@sympatico.ca), Stanley Grossman (UK), Maureen Harwood (Canada), Carmelan Polce (Australia), Maya Samara (Switzerland) and Joe Smallhoover (France)
Alright, I took the survey. I made special emphasis of the fact that I have had bank accounts closed, new accounts refused and investment banks refusing to touch me at all, being dropped as a signer on a registered charity’s bank account for stocking office supplies due to the illegality of them sharing financial details with any foreign government and that future spouse refuses to have any joint bank accounts with me or to send any financial details to the US government.
I took the survey too. Thanks for posting this link.
I have a former work colleague in the United States that I have discussed this issue with. After further discussion last evening he is willing to take this up on our behalf. I am hoping to have a letter shortly he is sending to several elected officials in the area he lives in requesting immediate assistance and clarification.
I did the survey, too . Thanks for making it anonymous or I wouldn’t have, since the situation makes me paranoid. Hope they listen and that some changes are made! The new guidelines for expats, promised in Feb, never did materialize, which I guess I should also have mentioned.
Done. 🙂
My American friend is very close to dumping a truckload of FATCA related documentation on the doorsteps of Congresswoman Tsongas, Senator John Kerry, and Senator Scott Brown. Included will be all NDP letters to Flaherty and commentary, responses from Flaherty, sessional papers etc. I will try to get the lengthy letter he is sending shortly. Everything should be on their doorsteps in the next or two. For Kerry and Brown my friend is going to have drive into Boston so that might not be as immediate. In total there about 30 pages of information he is sending to them.
I took the survey too and send a long article entitled “Falling through the cracks”.
@Tim, Thank you!! Appreciate all the good work!!
Joe Green, et al,
Thank you for providing the opportunity for input. All the best in representing US expats, US persons, Accidental Americans on May 15th. I hope you can convince someone to stop the absurdity, the insanity, the injustice of all this.
Thank you @Eric, Joe Green, and everyone else. It helps me to continue, to be part of trying to stop this, or at least make it a public shame for the US.
Just completed survey and sent letter!!
Been there and done that! Will pass it on…
Thanks for posting
I took the survey and sent my letter. I am so very strengthened and uplifted by the tireless effort all of you are putting into this. I plan to help out and do what I can once I have put behind me the nightmare of hours and hours of trying to do 1040’s, 3520’s, 3520-A’s, PFIC’s etc. in order to get compliant–all due to my whopping $10,000 RESP for my children (shame on me, what was I thinking as a Canadian citizen taking advantage of what MY government offers me?!) But thank you to you all who are already battling this injustice.
OK – this is about 27 months too late and being heard is woefully inadequate. If the Democratic party is still unaware, it is only by “willful blindness”.
I feel guilty over my pessimism, but the Democrats cannot undo the OVDI or FATCA anymore than the Republicans can uninvade Iraq.
Unfortunately, repeal and relief will have to come from the opposition and we need to reach out to them. Our stories and woes will be a lot more powerful in the hands of the GOP this election.
@zuludogm, I notice that the “Republicans Abroad Europe repeal FATCA” petition doesn’t seem to be moving along much. http://www.republicansabroadeurope.org/fatca_petition
I know – good point. The GOP abroad has never seemed to resonate. I have no affinity toward them or their crazy platform and I am sure their base has no affinity toward us. Almost everybody US citizen abroad I know is a Dem and I don’t think it’s just the circles I swim in. I’ve only met two Republicans here in years of living abroad. This is just not rich turf for them.
However, almost everybody I know abroad is actively wanting to put the Democrats out of power. We will probably never align to the GOP, but in the next one or two elections, we have a common enemy and the GOP would benefit from better outreach.
…until, of course, the GOP gain power and we are back at war with Charles Grassley. But he is a petty thief in comparison to Dems’ grand larceny.
@zuludogm Also I don’t see where the Republicans Abroad have submitted anything for the May 15th public hearings. I did a search on all the submissions I have seen (about 80) and their name did not come up. Maybe the list I am looking at is not a complete list, but would have thought given that it is the political silly season they would have been trying to make political and partisan capital out of this opportunity! Apparently not.
@just I’m not sure the hearings are meaningful. I mean – what are they going to do?
Even repealing FATCA (which is not going to happen), will not address the issues of double tax systems. We need the US to rationalize its tax system and use territorial taxation. That’s not on the agenda for 15 May, but it could be on the agenda for the election(s).
@zuludogm,
Point taken, but public hearings are an opportunity to score partisan points that the media might pick up, and just surprised that they haven’t put in a submission or tried to make a presentation. I am not encouraging it, because when arguments become partisan, all communication stops! Just surprised.
@ Just – I take your point. Me too.
@Deckard1138
Just curious, does Joe Green respond to email? I saw on the survey, invitations to email him, but sending to him, is like sending to so many journalist, not even an acknowledgement comes back so you don’t know if the information he requested arrived. Guess it doesn’t matter, as I did post something on the web site too, but again, when you hit enter you see no evidence that it was received, so you just wonder. Hummm
I’m with zuludogm. Too little. Too late.
So, who is this Democrat that doesn’t get the unintended consequences of his support for FWhat?
http://bloom.bg/IVo55S
The government needs to be tougher on offshore tax crimes than it has been, said U.S. Representative Richard Neal, a Massachusetts Democrat and one of the original sponsors of the legislation. Fatca, introduced after Zurich-based UBS AG (UBSN) said in 2009 that it aided tax evasion by Americans and agreed to pay $780 million to avoid prosecution, is already helping to improve banking transparency, he said.
“People should know, and the IRS should know, what money is being held offshore and for what purpose,” Neal said. “I don’t think there’s anything unreasonable about that.”
Dear Representative Neal:
And who are the ‘people’ that should know about my accounts? You mention ‘people’ as well as the IRS.
Regarding the purpose of my ‘offshore’ funds – does the US really need to know the details of how much I am holding ‘offshore’, in my legal accounts, with all interest duly reported to, and taxed automatically by the government where I live. Will it really help you to catch pirates if ‘people’ and the IRS can see for themselves that it was expended on daycare, pizza, the vet fees for my cats, after-school activities, dental bills, etc. Would that help relieve your and the US all-consuming anxieties about our ‘offshore’ bank accounts in the entirely normal everyday towns and cities outside the US – which is where we live, work – and pay taxes in full?
Under FATCA, eventually the banks will have to disclose ALL our ‘offshore’ account activities – every expenditure and deposit that passes through. We already have to identify and justify the account and it’s purpose, and the highest balance on any day in the year – forever and ever, amen.
Rep. Neal: will it help you and the IRS to sift through using your datamining and find that I spent more at the grocery store this month, and that I’m paying a shocking portion of my last pay check on gas? Do you personally share that much detail about your accounts with the IRS? And why not? ‘People and the IRS ‘ should know that level of detail about your accounts too. Especially since according to a Harvard study, some of the most excellent tax havens (by global standards) are INSIDE the US – like Delaware for example.
Will the pirates hiding money in tax havens be as forthcoming as those of us ‘abroad’ will have to be?