Some folks here, especially Steven J. Mopsick, our beloved former litigator for the IRS who has now turned advocate for fairness and justice for Americans abroad, have really wanted to stop the Isaac Brock Society from going off the deep tangent of drawing analogies between the United States and Nazi Germany. Finally, as an editor and administrator here at Isaac Brock Society, I have to agree: Everybody, please stop it!
That felt good. It is always good when you feel that you are in control and can order people around!
Meanwhile, I got to thinking about my recent comment at Outraged’s eloquent post “Me, I’m a moderate”. I said there that the first step in a pogrom of course is not genocide but identifying the target of persecution. The Nazis made Jews to wear yellow stars. I once read if I’m not mistaken in a Paul Johnson novel, The History of the Modern World, that many Jews were essentially assimilated to Europe, having forgotten about their Jewishness until Hitler abruptly reminded them that they were not Arian. He then made them wear yellow stars.
This gave
me an excellent idea for Americans abroad. We could design a badge similar to the six-pointed yellow star, but this would help the banks overseas to identify US persons. Then, when an American walks into an FFI (Foreign Financial Institution) it’s easier for the bank to determine who is an US person who needs to be singled out by the FATCA law, and who are your ordinary natives and residents from every other country in the world, such as China, Bangledesh, UK, Ireland, Italy, France, Germany, Switzerland, Uganda, Kenya, India, Indonesia (well, you get the picture). It really is very difficult to identify and treat Americans differently, if they are hiding behind a foreign passport or if they have assimilated into their countries of residence. Just as some Jews didn’t speak German with a Yiddish accent, some Americans living in Canada speak English with a Canadian accent, eh? And so they are virtually undetectable without actually making them take their pants down so that you can see if they have a “Property of the United States Government” tush tattoo.
As a former American in possession of Certificate of Loss of Nationality, I should have to wear one too. After all, my birth in Chicago taints me, just as something like a million Canadians: border babies (those born in a US hospital), accidental Americans, children and grandchildren of Americans, and obvious tax cheats like Peter Dunn who escaped to Canada, not to study and marry a Canadian, but to avoid paying US taxes. Really, American citizenship is irrevocable, and the tax-free status of a citizens of 195 other countries is something which should elude American citizens forever. So here is my design for the star, and it is easily printable and clipable: Y’all can just print a few hundred copies each (don’t forget to pay royalties, see below–this is an honour system), clip them out and give them to your friends for distribution. While US persons should have to wear them at all the times so that they can be subject to special treatment when walking on the street, shopping, or renting an apartment, it should be a capital crime in all countries in the world not to wear one of these when entering an FFI. Now if we all just volunteer to wear this star, it would save the FFIs millions of dollars in identification software, questionnaires and FATCA advertising.
All copyrights and patent rights reserved. Designed by Petros Research Inc. Please send to all Foreign Financial Institutions but insist that if they decided to use my design that they pay all royalties to Petros Research Inc. ($0.50 CDN per use).
*There is a point where this all becomes self-serving and just plain childish. I am pissed at US legislators who have blindly forced otherwise happy US citizens to renounce their citizenship. I cannot support a country that would fail me in that way. That’s all.
I think that the FATCA star would be extremely useful: here is a video that was posted earlier that shows how difficult it can be for FFIs to single out FATCA people. My suggestions would make it a lot easier and save the banks hundreds of millions. TD bank estimates that it will cost 100 million to ask their customers if they are US persons and to get them singled out for special treatment. The FATCA star would save them millions.
Bruce, this got me thinking the other day how these laws have created someone like me who feels like a person without a country. It’s not a bad feeling or anything negative. If anything, I’m thinking that that it can actually be more productive.
Maybe this is different for Canadians where the language and culture are very very similar. For me though, I practice the local customs and behavior, but as long as people reference me as a foreigner, I feel like a foreigner. But at the same time, I don’t feel American due to them trying to extinguish my existance overseas. Thanks to the US <sarcastic!>
Petros Research will undercut KPMG in FATCA compliance consultancy. My plan is to just get every American to wear the FATCA star. Here is KPMG’s FATCA promotional video; sounds complicated–you have to have taken a course at the “FATCA academy”:
@Petros
I just had a long meeting with my financial adviser, and what the FFIs are going to do in the short term is have everyone Canadian fill out a “getting to know your client” questionnaire” with this information they will be ‘armed’ and feel that this will give them a good working knowledge of what they are dealing with. (Second class Canadians).
This very form was pushed in front of me while he graciously offered me a black pen. I don’t know where inside me it came from, but my only response was to rip the paper in half in front of him and walk out, at which the meeting was over and his closing comments were “this will not solve your problem”.
So…it has begun.
As compared to my last meeting with the same individual who did not know anything about FATCA etc…they are now more informed and have been given marching orders on this initial assault on the citizens of this Country as they weed out the SCCs.
@Mach73 Well, any Brockers who want to wear the FATCA star please I give you permission to do so. I will waive my $0.50 royalty fee, pro bono (as Steven would say).
I’ve told my wife that I’m gonna wear the star when I go into the bank. She said, “Not when you are doing business for me!” She doesn’t have much to worry about. I don’t have signing authority on most of her business accounts.
@Petros- good work. It is a most appropriate analogy. One can also think about how comparable our situation is to what happened witht the Japanese in America who lost their property, businesses and were put into U.S. concentration camps.
@Mack73- I can imagine that it was a very horrible and humiliating meeting. How to comprehend the incomprehensible intransigence of what, outside of a University itself, is probably the largest concentration of people with a post secondary education is difficult to do.
And yet the best that they can do is to propose a 3 million dollar, two year study that will in the end only conclude that they were right. People who want to do the right thing and who can easily do it do NOT require two years. Whatever happened to, “justice delayed is justice denied”?
It is most ironic to now realize that the U.S. has the world’s largest single popoulation of refugees.
*Mach 73
Did you tell him your next conversation with him would be through a lawyer? Just out of curiousity would else did he say?
*Just for everyone’s knowledge in my budget submission to the Finance Committee last night I compared FATCA to the Chinese Head Tax of the late 1800s and early 1900s that is considered one of the reasons for enacting the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. I do so in a perfectly polite way in discussing the proposed FATCA intergovernmental agreements.
Truly sorry for everybody affected by FATCA — It should be ONLY applied to US residents
KPMG:
King of the tax-compliance industry. And I really enjoyed all those ex-IRS employees at KPMG, that revolving door is making them rich. These people are members of the new Praetorian class:
“As the Praetorian Class ascends, the clear, albeit unstated, message that emerges is that actions and events in the Economic Class only occur with its tacit consent. Whether driving on roads, traveling in the air, visiting public land, walking down the street or even living in your own home, every action you take is predicated on its permission. By preconditioning the populace to enforcement of its edicts, most of which are completely arbitrary, the Praetorian Class sets itself up for a high degree of autonomy in its actions. This is confirmed by the fact that consequences for malfeasance within the Praetorian Class are almost never observed, and when it happens, it typically becomes a grotesque spectacle in which one of their own is sacrificed as an example, so as to keep appearances of effective internal controls.
Members of the Praetorian Class are typically recruited from the Economic Class and usually from the lower socio-economic spectrum, which offers them an opportunity for personal
and professional gain that otherwise might be out of their reach. Early on in the training and indoctrination process, a strong emphasis is placed on teamwork and advancing the welfare of the team above the individual. While independent thought is never overtly discouraged, the fact is that questioning authority and failing to display complete loyalty to the team results in censure, shunning and even expulsion. Naturally, the recruit learns in short order which behavior is rewarded and responds accordingly. This forges a lifelong, unbreakable bond between the brothers-in-arms. This bond can be observed when people proudly display unit insignia and decorations decades after their departure from service.
As they serve in their martial role, members of the Praetorian Class learn to despise members of the Political Class and to view the plight of the Economic Class with detachment or even contempt. Law enforcement and military personnel will converse behind closed doors about the most horrific injustices and brutalities with cavalier amusement. While perhaps natural, their training for violence and teamwork is a fundamental cause for why members of the Praetorian Class abandon their roots and in time come to view their peers “back on the farm” with contempt. Likewise, the steady displays of the craven and treacherous character of the Political Class causes the Praetorian Class to privately disavow emotional allegiance to their masters, usually early in their service.”
@Tim, and concisely too, as the submission requested no more than 350 words per answer! Congrats on getting that out.
How does it work? If a US citizen doesn’t sign permission, the FFI can’t share his information with the IRS. Only thing the FFI can do is deduct 30% from the payments from the USA and call him recalcitrant. Many of us have no ties with the USA and may not receive any funds. If some long last friend or uncle wish to give us huge money as a gift, can’t he ask uncle to write a check in favor of non-citizen spouse? Alternatively isn’t possible to authorize (e.g. special power of attorney) an attorney to get the check in his account and he is by law must transfer the funds into the US person. A US person (e.g. green card holder) living in the USA can do the same.
I am just saying, if tax cheats want to get around FATCA, it may not be complex. I am sure tax lawyers can find many such clever strategies for tax cheats living in the USA. Most tax cheats find a way around any thing like FBARs. Only the innocent people, who are not aware of the things like FBAR innocently, walk into traps. Although they want to be law-abiding, they can’t abide by the laws they don’t know. When they become aware of the law, many of us walked into OVDI trap from the front door.
@Petros
Love it! I live on the west coast, I’ll have to get mine laminated.
I’d recommend something more like this:
@swisspinoy- I like that design. What a visual impact that would make.
@swisspinoy- I just noticed the ID number and my first thought was that its display would be a privacy issue. But they it occurred to me that no one would want to be identified as a U.S. person if they could avoid it so I guess that it is safe to put the number out there (LOL).
Don’t you think the star should be centred in a bullseye?
@Swisspinoy, Awesome. But my main impetus is collecting royalties. You will cede all future royalties to my company Petros Research or we may find ourselves in a patent dispute. 🙂
*ConfederateH
I know you and me disagree on a lot of things but there is a element actually more than an a element of truth in your comments. I would argue despite all the discussions here FATCA is mainly viewed as a bank to government issues with the large international banks representing the corrupt political class and the government representing the praetorian class. Bank customers(members of the economic class) are not really thought of that much or cared about it. FATCA is simply one of many prices to be paid by the political class(representing the corrupt international banks) to the preatorian class for keeping the Global Financial System from going into complete collapse back in 2008.
*Petros, Petros Research Inc. can collect all of the royalties. With Swiss Pinoy ltd., people can become non-US persons for only $1 per person, freeing themselves from the requirement of wearing your products. Next year, our revenue is expected to increase to over 300 million!
Sorry, recalcitrantexpat, I thought of and added the id while you were posting. The id is necessary because banks need it to confirm with interpol that the character has indeed been blacklisted as a financial hazard.
Both are very nice.
But swisspinoy’s version goes better with my Jimmy Choo’s……
(hey, I live in France and this stuff matters 🙂
Perhaps the Isaac Brock Society should start a merchandising unit. Besides the usual T-shirts, baseball caps, tote bags, key chains, pens, etc, maybe there should be one special item- an IBS calculator. Modelled on a financial calculator, it would have special keys such as: FBAR penalty calculator; OVDI penalty calculator,; LCU (life credit units wasted on all this stuff ) calculator and last but not least a ‘cost of being a US person living abroad’ calculator key.
I’m sure the IT specialist Brockers could come up with a way it could work.
If the calculator is successful, perhaps IBS could move on to an IBS pad to compete against the IPad. We could hire unemployed former RIM employees to work on the project.
@Hazy2 Great suggestion. Very funny indeed. We could create the calculator as an iPhone/iPad and Android app.