Many of us have been escalating our efforts to post comments to articles related to our issues in national and international news organisation websites. This is great and will increase our voice. But couldn’t we try another approach in parallel? I propose that we check the websites of local news channels for the 3 main networks (ABC, CBS, NBC) in every one of the 50 state capitals and all of the major cities we can think of and see if the search function on their site shows any articles for FATCA or other keywords related to our issues. If not, we could write them an email inviting them to look at recent articles in the national and international press that we have commented on as well as IBS, ACA and other sites of interest. Here is a sample email I just tried on a CBS affiliate:
Dear Editorial Staff:
I just did a search on your site for stories about FATCA in the past year and in the archives of your station’s website and didn’t find anything.
You might want to cover this topic in a news story as the US press is really quiet about what the IRS and Congress are doing to make the lives of US citizens abroad miserable. The US treats its persons abroad much like the Crown treated the colonists prior to the Revolution of 1776.
Here are some links to get you started:
Recent news article about why the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act should be repealed: http://www.upi.com/Top_News/Analysis/Outside-View/2012/05/08/Outside-View-Why-FATCA-should-be-repealed/UPI-86461336473000/?spt=hs&or=an
A blog started by US citizens living in Canada, covering FATCA, FBAR, Double Taxation, Volontary Disclosure and many other issues. Lots of heavy debate from participants all around the world:. http://www.isaacbrocksociety.com/
A not-for-profit organization dedicated to fighting for the rights of US citizens abroad: http://www.aca.ch
A lawyer in California who discusses issues of taxation abroad on his blog: http://www.hodgen.com
I really hope that you could make an interesting story about these issues.
Jeff
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SENATOR VINDICTIVE AGAINST US PERSONS LIVING ABROAD CAST AS BOB THE DINOSAUR
Maybe we could get Scott Adams to do a series of strips where Dilbert is sent to Elbonia to set up a new office, has trouble opening a bank account because of FATCA, gets his pay in cash, gets robbed of his cash by the Elbonian mafia, manages finally to open an account with negative interest (but free mud delivery) at a small provincial Elbonian bank, works for his company in Elbonia, sells his house in the US, pays Elbonian taxes, leaves his company, starts a new Elbonian company, doesn’t file FBAR or 1040 with the IRS, marries an Elbonian, obtains Elbonian nationality and then gets his and his wife’s savings and Elbonian mud house wiped out by the IRS, FATCA, double taxation, capital gains, and the FBAR Voluntary Disclosure Program.
Dogbert could play himself in the role of Dogbert Tax Lawyers and Accounting Advice LLC that tries to guide Dilbert through the process of getting screwed by the VDP. Catbert’s cousin could play the IRS comissioner. The accounting trolls could be cast as the IRS inspectors. There are certainly also roles in such a scenario for Ratbert, Bob the Dinosaur, Alice, Pointy-Haired Boss, Wally, and many others.
For example, an Elbonian banker could come and sell Pointy Hair on the merits of hiding some of his bonus money in Elbonian investments. Then Pointy-hair could get into the VDP through Dogbert’s guidance as well, but since he hadn’t moved everything to Elbonia he would still have something left, unlike Dilbert.
Asok could finally get his green card, only to be attacked by the IRS for 300% of his $ 10,000 savings account back in India which contains money he earned working in his dad’s car dealership back in India before he came to the US to study and eventually work in Dilbert’s company as an intern.
I am sure that if Scott Adams studied our issues he could come up with some really funny and meaningful cartoon strips. Anything that is rediculous, unfair, or doesn’t work the way it should seems to be fair game for him.
What do you think, should we write Scott with this proposal? I bet he is always looking for new scenarios to keep the adventures of Dilbert going.
After all, there are plenty of Dilbert cartoons already about taxes: http://search.dilbert.com/search?p=Q&srid=S3-USCDR02&lbc=dilbert&ts=custom&w=taxes&uid=866091422&method=and&isort=date&view=list&filter=type%3acomic&srt=0
Here is another article that mentions the double taxation issue http://economix.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/05/08/will-rich-people-desert-the-u-s-if-their-taxes-are-raised/?BU-D-E-AD-OB-TXT-BUS-ROS-0512-NA= The discussion thread on the article has 200 posts. Posts are limited to 1500 characters. Signup is free. I just posted, maybe some other Brockers can do the same if they haven’t already.
Over here in Europe I think it has to been framed around the issue banks will have to somehow ask people whether they’re US citizens or not. If they don’t FATCA doesn’t really any bite. Asking about someone’s US indicia is the crux of the problem of the US’s problem.
I think Antonio, Pedro, or Helmut would find this question offensive in their local banco or sparkasse when they’ve never step foot in the US. Turn this into an offensive question, can you imagine how upset someone might get? I’m in Paris and a French bank wants me (using a French passport) to confirm that I am not a US citizen or hold a US green card. It’s outrageous, we’re in France not the US, why should I have to do this. I’m a French citizen what else does the bank need to know etc.?
Then the problem of EU-US duals being treated differently than other EU dual citizens and a EU-US dual born outside of the US can simply lie to the bank and avoid detection by FATCA. These are issues that have to be worked out. Maybe a picture of Carl Levin or Obama with a US flags behind him sitting in Congress asking “Si vous êtes français est connexions américaines, tu me dois des impôts”
A cheap to annoy Levin would be to set up a UK (or Canadian) vonage number and divert it to Carl Levin’s offices in the US. That way outraged Canadians would have access to Carl at the price of a local phone call. Vonage is wonderful, you can forward calls internationally for free in many cases. Carl has several smaller offices across Michigan, or it would be fabulous if someone could get his mobile number. Wasting Carl’s staff time on international issues that doesn’t generate money for his re-election would p*ss him off.
See vonage – http://www.vonage.ca/inclusive-call-features/enhanced-call-forwarding/
Don’t like FATCA or Carl Levin? Let him know call 416-555-3456 today.
Bring the Canadians to Carl, he’s sure not going to Canada to meet them.
Once you have a Vonage account, call forwarding a call is free.
In France headlines like “Les banques françaises travaillent maintenant pour l’IRS américain!” Something that’s going to stir resentment towards the US overreach.
Could IBS raise $14.99 CDN a month to annoy Carl Levin?
Already in the French headlines: Les grandes banques sommées de traquer les évadés fiscaux américains http://www.lemonde.fr/cgi-bin/ACHATS/acheter.cgi?offre=ARCHIVES&type_item=ART_ARCH_30J&objet_id=1189200&xtmc=fatca&xtcr=2
About annoying Carl Levin, I think that there are more productive things to do, like communicating to everybody else how opressive his policies are. I’m afraid if we set up the such a hotline the US would put us on a terror list. But FATCA and FBAR are already terror policies that seek to exact tribute out of people just trying to work their jobs abroad and pay their bills.
Where does he fit into the Dilbert scenario that I imagined above? Who could he be cast as? Maybe Bob the Dinosaur?
I quite fancied Carl as Foghorn Leghorn! He’s got the same mentality.
Or perhaps Carl has been watching too much of the Pink Panther – Pinkome Tax skit.
As for the French angle, could we get CANAL+ to do a Les Guignols de l’Info sketch on FATCA?
Ah….Spitting Image French style. Sarkozy’s plane definitely looks like the place to be not Obama’s!
Poor old homelanders are shocked when they find out ESPN didn’t tell them much about the world beyond US borders!
@John, you can use programs like Skype, Yahoo Messenger or Google Voice. I suggest the simple Google Voice feature in Gmail, where a call to a phone number in the US or Canada is free if you are in the US or Canada, otherwise it is 1¢/min. https://www.google.com/voice/rates?hl=en
@john, “Then the problem of EU-US duals being treated differently than other EU dual citizens and a EU-US dual born outside of the US can simply lie to the bank and avoid detection by FATCA.” This is precisely the point I tried to make in my letter to ACA:
” I have recently read about ACA’s accomplishments during its April 17th meeting with the IRS, US Treasury, FINcen and TFFC. I appreciate the effort that your organization makes with the intention of improving the conditions of US citizens living abroad. However, I find one paragraph disturbing: “A major success for ACA in the meeting was the acknowledgment from Treasury that the recent increase of the threshold for FATCA reporting was directly related to ACA’s on-going communications to Treasury about its concerns over the FATCA legislation. This outcome shows that having ACA advocating for overseas Americans in Washington has made an important impact, which can directly affect policies.” I do not share your enthusiasm. FATCA is wrong in any form. With the concessions ACA has put forward, it is not only wrong, it is discriminatory. Firstly, in this form it discriminates against people with accounts over a certain balance. It may target US persons with a US birthplace and other “indicia”. Persons it would not detect would be those without indicia. They could be: naturalized Americans and green card holders who no longer live in the US, the offspring of US born citizens who attained citizenship through a parent and do not live in the US, persons who are required to file a US tax return having met the US substantial presence test- anyone with no outward signs of being a US person. These tens, or even hundreds of thousands of individuals may easily pass undetected. One could say “the absence of evidence is not evidence of absence”. For this reason, all foreign financial institutions should require each of their customers to prove that they aren’t US persons, in order for FATCA to be implemented without discrimination. For example, any customer with a non-US birth certificate should be required to produce the birth certificates of his parents to prove that he is not a US citizen through either of them. He should provide documents to prove that he never had permanent residency status or became a naturalized citizen in the US. Customers would have to produce exit and entry documents proving they did not overstay their time in the US. More ridiculously, customers who were born of intro fertilization will have to prove that neither the egg or sperm donors are US citizens.* In other words, all bank customers would have to prove a negative, which is impossible to do, in order for the process to be fair to those who are overtly US citizens. This is what makes FATCA so wrong- it can never be properly, fairly and effectively implemented without trampling on everyone’s rights and requiring them to do the impossible. Your organization should be making it clear to the US government what these absurdities and fatal weaknesses are, not accommodating it in some other form. Impossible is it was before it was tinkered with, it at least didn’t discriminate on the basis of income. I am one such person who will be flagged for investigation by my bank. I have a balance over the manual search threshold, and I can’t change where I was born. Under these terms I feel like I’m being presented as a gift to appease the FATCA gods, while those hundreds of thousands of others like me go free. For me, OVDI has already revealed everything about my bank accounts. My banker already knows I am a US citizen. I’m bringing this up because FATCA under any form is unworkable and a waste of resources. Yours truly, (bubblebustin) * http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/story/2012-03-19/in-vitro-citizenship/53656616/1”
“Dear (bubblebustin),
Thank you for your email. ACA has raised the issues that you noted in your email to both the IRS and Treasury as well as the legislature. Please remember that, the IRS and Treasury can not “repeal” or “eliminate” FATCA only the Congress can do this. The IRS and Treasury are aware that the legislation is not practical and very unworkable.
ACA works on educating those in Congress of the very destructive nature of this legislation and we are actively working with various legislators who have strongly opposed the legislation. In the absence of having someone in the legislature who will seek the repeal of FATCA, ACA does consider that working with the IRS and Treasury to try and find carve outs for individuals (maybe even some that you mention), more simplified filing, elimination of penalties for non-willfull filing errors and other revisions to the existing legislation is a step forward.
Thank you again for contacting ACA and we will take note of your comments and concerns.
ACA”
(I did error in my letter in saying that I would be subject to a manual bank search, when in fact my balance warrants only an electronic).
I’ll have to ask ACA what they mean by “carve-outs” and how so many in the legislature oppose FATCA yet there is no one in congress who will seek to repeal it.
What I still get get head around is whether someone who’s renounced would face punitive taxation if inheriting property from a US parent, for instance.
If you oppose FATCAT you will have zero chance of defeating its imposition by attacking through American media channels.
There is no anti-FATCAT constituency in the US large enough to “move the needle” in any elected official’s reelection campaign plan.
With the summer Olympics occupying most Americans attention and the presidential campaign that will get really intense after Labor Day, no one in the media is going to waste a column inch (or the electronic equivalent) on something as complex and obscure as FATCAT.
To defeat FATCAT you must do so through the local media in the countries that will be forced to pay the price of doing the bidding of the United States.
What price?
1. The financial costs to local FFI’s of implementing FATCAT for the exclusive benefit of the USA will be enormous and will presumably be a deductible business expense. That expense will be recovered either through higher costs to the FFI’s local country customers or business tax deductions that will reduce their contribution to their home country’s tax revenues. Ultimate loser: the residents of the country.
2. The violation of local laws (civil and criminal), public policy and/or cultural values required by FATCAT. Carl Levin uses the pejorative term “secrecy jurisdictions”. FATCAT, however, applies not just to “secrecy jurisdictions” but also “individual privacy valuing jurisdications” and “individual liberty protecting jurisdictions”.
Unlike the United States whose elected representatives effectively waived any reasonable expectation of financial privacy vis-à-vis their government when it passed the Bank Secrecy Act in 1970, the peoples and democratically elected governments of many countries in the world place a much higher legal, social and cultural value on individual privacy. The peoples of these countries are vigilant to any effort to erode those rights and are vigorous in defending them.
US persons who are lawfully resident in these countries and usually pay taxes there have every reason to insist that they enjoy the equal protection of that country’s privacy and other laws. They should work with local privacy and civil rights groups to ensure that they do not get singled out for sacrifice to the USA for the sake of mere convenience to their host government.
The reason local civil rights organizations should be persuaded to lobby in behalf of US citizens resident in their country should be made crystal clear: if their country can throw one group under the bus, there is nothing to stop them from throwing the rest of them there too.
3. Even if FATCAT offered an objectively equal tit for tat in exchange for the cooperation of the affected country, appeals to nationalistic or even anti-American sentiments will likely have great resonance once it becomes clear what the US is up to and what it will likely cost the taxpayers of that country in terms of both money and national dignity.
4. If local political resistence forces the Treasury department to engage in lengthy, multiple bilateral negotiations in order to secure local cooperation, implementation of FATCAT will be put on ice for so long that it will turn into something like the negotiations on the Law of the Sea Treaty (which have been going on for ever and will likely never end).
So if you want to beat FATCAT, forget the US media and start the advocacy ball rolling in countries that actually give a happy Goddamn about national self-determination, privacy and the equal protection of their laws for all their residents.
I just ran across this site (for Canadians), joined it, did a search and there is zero content in the forums on FATCA or FBAR. I’d never heard of it before, no idea what kind of reputation the site has.
http://www.canadiancontent.net/
Top story showing is ‘Canadians to pay entry fee entering the United States. There is a forum specifically for US-American Politics. Might be an opportunity to get some Canadians engaged?
Jefferson…
I have been meaning to get back to this thread with more ideas of contacts.
One that I mentioned early, whose attention I have been trying to get (unsuccessfully) is Market Place Radio. I don’t know if any of these reading here ever listen to it, but it is really pretty good, except for their lack of any FATCA coverage. They also have a large NPR listening audience, and if we could ever crack that nut, the word would get out to a listener-ship that is probably more inclined to vote for Obama, branded as NRP is, (unfairly, I think) as Liberal.
So, today I got an opportunity on one of their stories to post something about Citizenship taxation and impacts of FATCA as it relates to an Australian initiative to try to get millionaire investors to bring their money and skill to Australia.
The name of the short story was:
Australia looks to import millionaire investors
I have posted a response there, and encourage any Brockers reading here, who are so inclined to do so also. I would love to get these guys attention, and someone besides Just Me would help! 🙂 Will tweet them later on this also…
Latest Facebook post from ACA
https://www.facebook.com/americancitizensabroad
Thanks for posting, Eric. I’ve replied and can give information I’ve provided to Brian Knowlton of the New York Times and Atossa Abrahamian of Reuters. Unfortunately, my input would have to be anonymous if there were any interest — and if the headlines will not be anything to do with Tax Evasion or Traitors.
@Eric…
Thanks for posting that. I keep forgetting to go to the ACA facebook page… Since you found it, maybe we should make it a stand alone Post, so more see it. There are not that many that have commented on this thread to be getting follow-up comments, but they may want to participate if they knew about it.
@yes Eric, please make a stand alone post on this. A commenter on ACA says the email address posted doesn’t work though and ACA said the article is about those who are considering relinquishing. Are we to assume that it doesn’t include those who are considering renouncing?
@ Eric, yes please make a stand alone post on this. Just to note, a commenter on ACA says the email address posted doesn’t work though and ACA said the article is about those who are considering relinquishing. Are we to assume that it doesn’t include those who are considering renouncing?
I got through and have gotten a response (for a follow-up phone call): mail@vivwalt.com.
@Calgary…
I have had an email exchange too, trying to figure out what she is looking for and how much “in the weeds” she wants to get! Will see what happens. I have provided her a few links here for her education process.
Let’s not overlook the fact that Fareed Zacharia is editor at large with Time magazine and host of Fareed Zacharia GPS on CNN, which of course is owned by Time Warner.
Well, that’s good information, bubblebustin! (Fareed Zacharia)
I don’t know if anyone noticed; the Isaac Brock Facebook page has an entry from CNN Money journalist James O’toole. It seems like he wants to do a story on renouncing US citizenship.
I am not on Facebook so I couldn’t read the entire message.
CNN and TIME magazine (as posted by Eric above) are major league!
@FTW, it’s great you noticed the Fb entry. I cc’d him the letter I wrote to Vivienne Walt at Time, telling him I did so.