Dem bill would require candidates, elected officials to disclose offshore accounts
“The American people might be surprised to know that we don’t already ask those running for office and Congress members whether they’re hiding money offshore,” Durbin said. “Without this bill the American people won’t know if a candidate is avoiding paying their fair share … which costs American taxpayers $100 billion a year.”
“There are only two reasons why a person has Swiss bank account,” Durbin said. “Number one: to hide their level of wealth … and two, if they think the Swiss franc is stronger than American dollar.”
Top Dems Push Bill Requiring Candidates To Disclose Offshore Tax Havens
“This is not a new issue,” said Levin, who has fought it for more than a decade. “When a crooked business or a shameless individual does not pay its fair share, the burden gets shifted to others, usually to ordinary taxpayers and working Americans. … Tax dodgers and tax avoiders have continued to exploit every offshore loophole and tax haven that they can find.”
Durbin and Levin said efforts to crack down on offshore tax havens once had bipartisan support, positing that the only plausible reason an American would have a Swiss bank account is to hide or conceal their wealth. Durbin said he intends to propose the legislation as an amendment to an unrelated bill, arguing that bringing it up separately would eat up a week’s worth of Senate time. He admitted has hasn’t spoken to Republicans about it yet.
Go ahead. Vote for Obama!
@Tim, I found sources for your two quotes. I’m not sure that’s where you got them though. Peu importe.
“Durbin said he intends to propose the legislation as an amendment to an
unrelated bill, arguing that bringing it up separately would eat up a
week’s worth of Senate time. He admitted has hasn’t spoken to
Republicans about it yet.”
Guess it’s not idea for legislation to be discussed. Not a good idea for anybody to know what they are voting for. I can just imagine Dubin and Levin: “Hey buddy, did you hear a new law is going to be passed tonight! Maybe, we can slip this in through the back door.”
These people are pathetic – more “Trojan Horse” legislation!
http://renounceuscitizenship.wordpress.com/2012/04/28/fatca-%E2%80%93-the-trojan-horse-of-the-hire-act/
Actually, it’s becoming more and more cleat that the U.S. is now so corrupt that one should get their money out of the U.S. to keep it from being expropriated.
Anyway, history will record that the U.S. has a world power was ended by Bin Laden because he set into motion a chain of events that resulted in two successive U.S. presidents Bush and Obama finishing his work of ending the U.S. as a land of freedom and democracy.
Thank God, I don’t live there!
From Durbin: “There are only two reasons why a person has Swiss bank account, … Number one: to hide their level of wealth … and two, if they think the Swiss franc is stronger than American dollar.”
So is thinking the Swiss franc is stronger than the American dollar now illegal? And how about “three, living in Switzerland?” Twit.
It has become impossible to differentiate this congressional grandstanding from satire. Corollary of Poe’s law in action. Just when you think congress couldn’t become dumber, they prove you wrong again.
Could someone just straightout confront Durbin, Congresswoman Schakowsky, Levin, Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla. and chair of the Democratic National Committee), and all the others who keep firmly repeating the mantra that there are NO good reasons for a US citizen (or dual) to have a Swiss bank account, if the ‘foreign’ ‘overseas’ accounts that the Obama campaign is tapping for donations in their fundraisers ‘abroad’ exist for a ‘good reason’? http://reason.com/archives/2012/07/10/the-dark-side-of-anti-swiss-bank-account .Does the Democratic re-election campaign check with the IRS first to see if the money only originates from ‘compliant’ ‘foreign’ accounts before they accept the money to re-elect the President? Do they only take Democratic party donations from accounts with FBARs, FATCA, 3520s, etc. all neatly data mined and blessed? Of course they don’t.
Apparently, for Democrats, a Swiss (or other ‘foreign’) bank account is magically not one of the ‘hidden’ ‘offshore’ ‘overseas’ ‘tax haven’ ones only if it is the source of Obama re-election campaign donations:
https://donate.barackobama.com/page/contribute/o2012-february28genevareception?custom1=5624296
http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/304731/obama-s-swiss-cheese-campaign-michelle-malkin
….”According to the Hollywood Reporter, Clooney will entertain 150 European elites at a swanky Swiss reception, “which will be followed by a more intimate — and expensive — dinner at which the star will be the guest of honor. Tickets for the latter event will go for $20,000 for singles and $30,000 for couples.””…
……..”Some of his very best campaign-finance bundlers and golfing buddies are architects and beneficiaries of the Swiss tax havens he purports to
abhor.
Robert Wolf is president of Swiss financial giant UBS Investment Bank and chairman of UBS Americas. According to campaign-finance records, this longtime friend and fat cat has personally bundled more than $500,000 for Obama, dating back to Obama’s Illinois Senate days.“……..
““We’re going to see more fund-raising done overseas this time than we ever have in the past,” “……”At this point, Obama has a sizable edge over the former Massachusetts governor in attracting donations from abroad, but Romney is planning several high-dollar fund-raisers while abroad later this month.”……….”A variety of factors are driving the bid for overseas donations. With businesses growing in international hubs like London and Hong Kong, there are more potential donors living abroad.”………. http://articles.boston.com/2012-07-17/politics/32699971_1_fund-raising-raiser-obama-campaign
There are similar fundraisers in London, Paris, Sweden, and Shanghai http://www.delmarvanow.com/article/20120623/NEWS01/120623015/POLITICS-Obama-taps-overseas-donors . When will the Canadian leg of the donation campaign will begin here? Who will host? I haven’t received my invitation yet. Maybe it’s not coming – they already know that the price of specialist US tax and law services have more than drained the purses of any US/duals ‘abroad’ here, there’s nothing left in our ‘overseas’ ‘foreign’ ‘hidden’ bank accounts.
Don’t you have to be a US citizen to make a donation to a US Presidential campaign? So, Presumably the guests are either dual US citizens living abroad, with local ‘foreign‘ Swiss or European accounts or, they’re all US residents – making 20 to $30,000. donations from abroad – drawn on US accounts?
“the Federal Election Campaign Act (FECA) prohibits any
foreign national from contributing, donating or spending funds in connection
with any federal, state, or local election in the United States, either directly
or indirectly. It is also unlawful to help foreign nationals violate
that ban or to solicit, receive or accept contributions or donations from
them. Persons who knowingly and willfully engage in these activities
may be subject to fines and/or imprisonment. “http://www.fec.gov/pages/brochures/foreign.shtml
Actually apparently green card holders can lawfully donate too – according to the FEC site above. “An immigrant may make a contribution if he or she has a “green card” indicating
his or her lawful admittance for permanent residence in the United States” . So, green card holders who are being persecuted by the IRS regarding their lawfully earned ‘foreign’ accounts and property in their country of origin, can also donate – if they have anything left over from the ‘FBAR’ fundraiser.
See quote from Susan Dzieduszycka-Suinatat, president of the Overseas Vote Foundation – regarding voting from abroad:
“She added that this year U.S. citizens residing abroad have another
incentive to vote: their unhappiness with a 2010 law called Foreign
Account Tax Compliance Act, which imposes fines for those who do not
report information on their foreign bank accounts (if their aggregate
value exceeds $50,000) to the Internal Revenue Service. The minimum
penalty for failing to submit the information is $10,000; the maximum
penalty is $50,000.
………..
“It makes all kinds of sense to find people who are hiding
money overseas to keep it from being taxed,” she said. “But what
happened is that in their net, they ended up persecuting the average Joe
who lives overseas.”
“It’s almost as if the U.S. doesn’t appreciate
the fact that we’re out here representing the country, building trade.” ……… “without representation, overseas Americans can be somewhat
persecuted.”” http://www.witn.com/news/politics/headlines/Romney_Foreign_Trip_Highlights_Significance_Of_Overseas_US_Voters_162831676.html
*
We need a cartoonist here. Maybe we could turn it into a New Yorker style illustration; Two US politicians walk into a bar. The first one says ; “When is a Swiss bank account not a Swiss bank account”? …
“There are only two reasons why a person has Swiss bank account,” Durbin said. “Number one: to hide their level of wealth … and two, if they think the Swiss franc is stronger than American dollar.”
Number Three: to buy new shoes for the their kids before the school year starts.
This is somewhat tangential to the above discussion but I’m going to place it in this thread.
Since US Persons living and working in Switzerland are being forced to give up their bank accounts, especially their savings and securities accounts, the question arises what should the average Americain, who has not yet renounced, do with this money? Here are some possibilities:
1) Take it out in cash and place it in a bank safety deposit box (where you still have a current account). Be sure to keep the withdrawal ticket so that when it is re-deposited, after renouncement, that you do not run afoul of AML.
2) Obtain the certificates for the securities in your securities account and put them in a safety deposit box. Bearer securities might have advantages to registered securities but possibly not.
3) Buy gold or other precious metals with cash which can also be stored in the safety deposit box (or stored with the precious metals company, if you trust them).
4) Buy real estate, such as a condomium, a ski chalet or perhaps a villa on Lake Geneva. Cash can be used to buy real estate without falling under AML.
5) Buy a work of art, like an original Rembrandt painting or a Giacometti sculpture. AML does not generally apply to such purchases.
6) Make an additional purchase into your company’s pension plan. It appears that pension plans will not fall under FATCA but it might be best to wait until another set of rules comes out to clarify this.
7) Open a savings account with a tiny bank, less than $190 million in assets, which should be exempt from FATCA reporting. Final rules are expected in August on this subject too.
A thought on Swiss currency. New currency is to be introduced in 2013, reportedly starting with the CHF 50 note. If you are planning to bunker a lot of currency, keep in mind that you might have to change it for new currency. (The old Swiss currency was recalled in 2000 and the recall is valid until 2020. See link below.) One blogger thinks that the reason the currency change has been delayed is not due to the official technical reasons but rather due to the fact that there is so much currency, particularly, CHF 1’000 notes, that is stored in safety deposit boxes. Please see the last section of the attached blog (German):
http://www.snb.ch/de/mmr/reference/instr_recalled_notes/source
http://arlesheimreloaded.ch/schweizer-banknoten-in-tausender-noten-ii/
@innocente, precious metals are in a secular bull market. You can store a lot in a safety deposit box, and it may actually turn out to be a pretty decent investment (contra Warren Buffet), given the current macro-trends (excessive fiat money creation by nearly central bank, now even the Swiss, and China and central banks stockpiling gold as an alternate to US dollar reserves).
It is interesting that so many CHF are held by individuals.
Nice. But regarding #3, keep in mind that a safety deposit box is the only thing that’s guaranteed to be non-FATCA-reportable at this point. Even allocated storage with a non-US metals company might be reportable:
http://www.mountainvision.com/newsletter.php?view=65b9eea6e1
https://nestmann.com/finally-definitive-guidance-from-the-irs-on-offshore-account-reporting/
There are issues with safety deposit boxes in Switzerland. If the owner dies, the box cannot be opened, even by someone with a power of attorney (procuration/vollmacht) and the key until the will is probated. Original copies of wills should not be kept in safe deposit boxes for this reason. If someone dies and you have signature authority for the box, you might want to calmly go down and empty the box, without mentioning the death. Who knows to or at want point the US would become involved in Swiss probate negotiations. I am not sure if a judge would attempt to inform the US government if the will forbid such.
This brings to light another line of attack against account closings. What about the beneficiaries, especially of life insurance policies and the inherent, legally mandated beneficiaries of 2nd pillar and 3rd pillar retirement accounts and policies, many of whom must be non-USP family members? They are being discriminated against as well.