Wondering posted this on the How to Join thread where it doesn’t seem to be getting the attention it deserves:
James George Jatras is a Principal of Squire Sanders Public Advocacy, a Washington-based government relations firm. He previously served as a policy analyst at U.S. Senate and as an American diplomat. He can be reached at james.jatras@squiresanders.com.” His article: FATCA’s “Vulnerabilities Evident,” Washington Expert Claims, Calls for Repeal WASHINGTON,
The following is being released by Global Strategic Communications Group: The FATCA law should be scrapped, writes James George Jatras, a Washington-based legislative specialist and expert in international affairs, in a May 8 UPI commentary. Citing “untold costs” versus “trivial revenue recovery,” Jatras shatters the myth that FATCA (“Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act”) is a “done deal” and calls for “first rendering FATCA unenforceable, and then for its final repeal.”
With this article and others in the last few days, do others sense the tide is shifting? Or is that just wishful thinking on my part?
It could make for an interesting hearing next week.
The official lobbying has begun. I think we might start to see more and more news articles that are sympathetic to our cause.
@omghesstillanamerican, I feel very confident there are very few with hearts and sane minds who would not sympathize with our cause! There will be a tipping point…
Maybe I am a bit slow with my blog surfing, but I just stumbled across this on the Freedom Works blog written by Julie Borowski:
“FATCA Will Have Devastating Impact on American Expatriates”
http://www.freedomworks.org/blog/jborowski/fatca-will-have-devastating-impact-on-american-exp
She’s got it right!
I saw the James Jatras article last night. I definitely liked it.
But like everything that “makes too much sense” / too practicle – and doesn’t say the exact words that the US Government wants, it never goes anywhere. Yes, I DO believe that the US wants nothing NEGATIVE about the FATCA in MSM publications. They want the FATCA too badly. Misguided enthusiam is an American “trait”, after all.
I wish James good luck, and I hope he is able to get his message to common US Residents.
@geeez, I don’t know if the American public is his target. Isn’t he with a lobbying firm? The big guns (FFI’s) may be bringing out their arsenal (hope).
@ Ben Franklin
Another good article. Right on Ms. Julie Borowski! Devastating impact indeed. One more thing … strain on the universal healthcare systems of “overseas” countries when the minnows there go blue around the gills from IRS induced apoxia.
@ bubblebusting
Thanks for reposting!
@ all
Jatras is a an expert & connected lobbyist. His assignment is to oppose FATCA. Someone feels strongly enough about opposing FATCA to retain his firm. This is a good thing! The article is a well written news release, with great “talking points”. It is an opinion piece, similar to posts here.
His email and his firm’s email are listed. And a Twitter feed. Offer your stories, insight and support. Invite him to join the discussion.
Em,
“strain on the universal healthcare systems of “overseas” countries when the minnows there go blue around the gills from IRS induced apoxia.”
Hilarious!!!!
@Wondering, you’re welcome. The interesting thing about FATCA is that the bad things about it don’t have to be spun-just telling the truth is enough to get it repealed. It’s manna from heaven for a lobbying firm, I imagine.
Is form 8938 related to the FATCA bill or did the IRS just pull it out of their magic hat?
I just ask because that has to go away as well! Normally I am not the biggest fan of lobbyists, but in the US case it seems like this is actually the best (only?) way that has any chance of actually convincing the politicians to revoke FATCA. Lets hope that the number of anti-FATCA lobbyists only balloons over the coming months!
@Don
Form 8938 is pure FATCA.
http://www.irs.gov/businesses/corporations/article/0,,id=236667,00.html
@all, interesting when you realize that the Canadian Bankers Assn is actually a lobbying group for Canadian banks. I wouldn’t be surprised if they hired this one, or one like it to lobby on their behalf.
@Ben Franklin, I’m slow, too, I guess – I ran across an article today, back from mid April, that I quite liked. I’ve never heard of Reason.com magazine, I don’t know what their reputation is out there, but I liked the article, 5 New Ways the IRS is Screwing America:
http://reason.com/archives/2012/04/16/top-5-new-ways-the-irs-is-screwing-ameri
@All, there had been talk (somewhere on this site) of creating a list of articles to post that we can reference. American Citizens Abroad has one that I’m working my way through:
http://www.aca.ch/joomla/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=473&Itemid=2
However, it would be nice to have a list that separated out (if feasible) relinquish/renounce articles from fbar/fatca/taxes, etc. Is anyone actually working on a post/list, or was this just one of those things that kind of got talked about and then forgotten? If someone’s already working on it, then I wouldn’t want to duplicate, but I would contribute/help. If no one’s working on it, then I can/will, if people think it would be of value.
I really like this paragraph;
“a clearer picture emerges of the long list of oxen who will be gored: American expatriates, dual nationals, resident aliens, American consumers of financial and investment services, workers in foreign investment-dependent industries, and anyone who doesn’t want their private financial data shared with who-knows-who,” as well as both American and foreign firms “saddled with costs completely out of balance with FATCA’s supposed revenue purpose.”…. and “”It’s the IRS who’s really being rescued, with foreign governments’ being ‘allowed’ to do IRS’s job for it.”
(from the article “FATCA’s “Vulnerabilities Evident,” Washington Expert Claims, Calls for Repeal” by Jatras)
I notice that the Sacramento Bee has it too; http://www.sacbee.com/2012/05/10/4480685/fatcas-vulnerabilities-evident.html with no comments yet.
Hi, outraged,
Petros has an EXTERNAL RESOURCES list in the lower right-hand corner of the main page of Isaac Brock. In that is the excellent resource U.S. Citizens in Canada InfoShop, http://usxcanada.wordpress.com/, where usxcanada has links to important news stories. To not reinvent the wheel, perhaps another item under EXTERNAL RESOURCES could be a link to a page where you (or someone) could put additional links to news stories that have been posted in Isaac Brock Posts and Comments, categorizing them as you suggest. The U.S. Citizens in Canada Info Shop is such an excellent resource, with each story summarized, that it is a first go-to resource to me.
There is this reference to FATCA negotiations and Canada’s Minister Flaherty: “The U.S. government has also been in talks with foreign governments over easing the requirements, for example, for dual citizens. Canadian Minister of Finance James Flaherty told a conference sponsored by the George W. Bush Institute in New York last month that he was negotiating with Geithner about the FATCA requirements.”
from
“Congress Probes IRS FATCA Interest Regulations”
Washington, D.C. (May 11, 2012)
By Michael Cohn, Accounting Today
http://www.accountingtoday.com/news/Congress-Probes-IRS-FATCA-Interest-Regulations-62627-1.html
@Badger: Thanks! I like the sound of that a lot more than the information in Globe and Mail that Canada may be negotiating a government to government agreement.
“Easing the requirements” for dual citizens could make a huge difference (although many of us consider ourselves, like the Prime Minister to be “Canadian and only Canadian.”) “Easing up on duals” could resolve a lot of stress for many people–including accidental Americans.
If CRA won’t collect tax liability for IRS on Canadian citizens, I fail to understand why they would report in a government to government arrangement as described in G and M article.
Canadian citizenship is our best protection from the US. Remember, FATCA draft regulations provide alternatives to a CLN. They allow a person born in US to present a a non-US passport or other proof of non-US citizenship along with a “reasonable explanation” of renunciation of US citizenship to an FFI. This would seem to address the issue of dual citizenship. But, I still believe Canadian banks and CRA have absolutely no legal authority to ask for our place of birth (or a parent’s place of birth) in the first place.
@Blaze,
I’d prefer no FATCA at all, no way, nohow. Anything in place tends to stay in place once resources have been committed. Better not to allow even a toe in Canada’s doorway.
@Calgary, good idea. Use what’s already here, what a thought! Will see what I can come up with re: readable format and headings, etc, this weekend.
As far as ‘easing’ goes, that’s truly something to be hoped for for true dual citizens. For those of us who consider ourselves Canadian only, I want a simple ‘does not apply’. And I completely agree with Badger, FATCA, in any shape or form, is only the top of a slippery slope with the US poised to slide and slide and slide. Once they’re in, they will keep changing the rules, changing the laws, changing the amounts, changing the exemptions, all to their advantage and to the disadvantage of all US and former US persons. FATCA is an invasion of privacy and is an absolute outrage and should not be tolerated by our governments. Why oh why cannot the politicians in all countries see this?
Reblogged this on Stop Unconstitutional Double Taxation and commented:
FATCA’s “Vulnerabilities Evident,” Washington Expert Claims, Calls for Repeal
Also note that Jartas recently also blogged here
http://blog.independent.org/2012/04/30/global-financial-information-regime-looms/