I’d like to talk to someone in BC — on the record, which means I would use your name — for an article I’m preparing for BC Business magazine on the FATCA nightmare. I know this would be a leap, and fully understand if no one wants to front up. I stayed anonymous for quite a while myself on this. But I need a real story/anecdote to get this piece moving. My email is don_whiteley at telus dot net, anyone who thinks they could do this drop me a note and we’ll have a conversation first, just to make sure you’re comfortable. My deadline on this is June 28th (and I’m away next week).
DW
@Arrow, I’ve changed your email address to a nomenclature less likely to be recognized by spambot.
That is a good idea! Hope a Brocker takes up the request. We need some more out of the shadows for the anecdotal stories.
I suggest getting in touch with Maurice Williams of Kelowna. His story was told in the Vancouver Sun in an article by Don Cayo. I’ve been hoping to see an update on his story, and whether he had any response to his open letter to Mr. Obama. See:
http://blogs.vancouversun.com/2011/09/06/obama-asked-to-intervene-in-irs-assault-on-canadian-residents/
@northernShrike —
Yes — I remember that. Thanks for reminding me. I’ll track him down and get an update.
DW*
Arrow and northernShrike,
There is discussion with Professor Williams here: http://isaacbrocksociety.ca/2012/04/22/obama-responds-to-ovdi-concerns-or-not/
And, he can be reached at maurice.williams@ubc.ca
I agree, he would be a great contributor!! And, it would be great to have an update on how he and his family are doing with these issues.
@Arrow,
I have been in contact with Vivianne Walt @ mail@vivwalt.com She is the one that was mentioned on ACA facebook page, looking for contacts and stories for a Times Magazine article she is working on. I sent her your Kenyan article, and contact details. If you check your email, you will see I copied you in on my communication. She, like you, is looking for those willing to stick their heads up above the anon weeds! 🙂
@just me, @calgary411 —
Thanks for this — yes I saw the Vivianne Walt post. I’ll get at this tomorrow, then I’m gone for a week ad I’ll pick it the week after next.
@just me, have you been communicating with Vivianne Walt? She did get back to me; I sent her some information that I had provide Brian Knowlton for the New York Times article, but I haven’t heard any more from Vivianne. I was not, however, ready to put my name into the media, unfortunately.
@calgary411…
Yes, she called me at midnight last night (time zone thing) and then we chatted again this morning on Skype. I followed up with an email. If you send me an email offline, I will send you a copy of what I sent her, just so you know.
@Arrow: Maurice Williams is a great suggestion. I communicated with him for a while before I discovered Brock. He is one of those who thought he relinquished long ago–1986 in fact, so I it will be interesting to see how he is affected by Supreme Court decision that year. I believe he has filed back returns since learning of this.
Good Luck. I hope you are able to reach him. It would be great if you could get someone else as well, but the timidity on this spearks to the massive fear.
Hi,
I started reading the IsaacBrockSociety board about two weeks ago and am very supportive of your efforts. This week I was in contact with one of the NY Times reporters who has written on the FATCA subject. He responded that he would like to report again on FATCA but has been tied down with Euro Zone articles. To prod him along, I was thinking to suggest several FATCA/ FBAR topics to him. Here are two that I could suggest but would like your input before writing to him again:
1) Unemployment: how FATCA and other tax regulations tend to keep unemployed Americans from going abroad for work (e.g., in Alberta’s oil fields) and how these regulations may cause employed Americans abroad to renounce/ relinquish their citizenship never to return.
2) Intense Criticism of FATCA by Americans abroad: as mentioned in the IRS Oversight Board Report for 2011 (see p. 35 below), Americans abroad have sharply criticized FATCA due to its impact on their ability to maintain bank accounts and for other reasons. This topic could be expanded to cover the extreme difficulties that US citizens abroad encounter trying to comply with US regulations that are unclear but for which there are severe penalties for even technical non-compliance.
http://www.treasury.gov/irsob//reports/2012/IRSOB%20Annual%20Report%202011.pdf
I would be interested in any input on other possible topics for this reporter.
Thank you.
Innocente
@Innocente
FATCA will affect an estimated 200,000 FFIs around the globe. Clearly, not all of them will be FATCA compliant. For these, the penalty for holding US investments is a 30 percent withholding tax. Conclusion? A strong incentive for disinvestment. What will happen to the US economy when even a small part of the estimated $21 trillion in foreign investment is withdrawn? Stock market plunge? US Treasury having to raise interest rates on government bonds to compensate for departing investment?
This ought to be of interest to a US audience.
@NorthernShrike…
Ought to be, but clearly is not of interest to US journalists. There is one that I know of, that is just blocking my tweets, in the equivalent of putting his hands over his ears! 🙂 I am just amazed how uninterested they seem to be…
I will be interested to see if the Times Magazine story that Vivienne Walt is working on sparks some. It all depends how it is written, and the emphasis placed. I have done all I can to be sure the full narrative is known. Linear projection goes like this….UBS, OVDP, FATCA,OVDI, DATCA and GATCA…now we wait to see what is left on the editor’s cutting room floor.
@Just Me,
Great visual — US journalists putting their hands over their ears. It’s true — the media, more and more, follow certain agendas. We have to wonder why.
@calgary411… Willful deafness. 🙂
@Innocente
If that is David Jolly, he is a good guy, but do understand he is tied down on the Euro crisis.
There are two angles that I wished some journalist, who didn’t have their “hands over their ears” on this subject would pursue. One centers on the impact of Citizenship Taxation on the trade deficit and jobs in the Homeland. Something along the lines of the Conklin Report which Roger has been preaching on for 30 years…
The other angle, is the Bigger Narrative of what is happening looking at FATCA from 30,000 feet. The fact that we are moving to a Global Total Tax Data Awareness Regime, or GATCA is really a little understood story. Everything you see written
about FATCA (little that there is) is down in the weeds stuff about impacts of some strange acronym program that causes your eyes to glaze over. It is about Equity funds being effected, Privacy concerns by some foreign bank, or cries of Expats going to be harmed, or a Florida Bank complaining about some regulation which will cause depositor flight, or investment moving away from America, or FFIs complaining that they don’t have enough time to comply, etc, etc, etc…
But, no one has taken a BIG picture view of this. What is being constructed while the world is self absorbed with all their financial and economic woes right now? I would love to see something along the lines of the narrative I recently put up on the WSJ blog. That is the narrative I am spinning at every opportunity.
and Innocente, glad you are now contributing to the thoughts and comments here. Have you considered tweeting too? We need more Brocker tweets on the FATCA Follies to counter the FATCA Compliance Complex that is dominating the #FATCA hash tag! 🙂