If Congress set out right now to craft a law to sabotage the global competitiveness of the US economy, they’d have trouble coming up with one better than what they passed in 2010 in the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA). The law is ostensibly aimed at combating tax evasion and requires every foreign institution in the world to act at their own tremendous expense as deputy US tax collectors. FATCA will instead turn the US into an economic pariah and Americans citizens into toxic assets.
The many burdens created by FATCA have been well covered here and elsewhere. As I previously discussed, it will divert untold billions of dollars per year away from productive activities in order to pay lawyers to comply with a law optimistically expected to raise less than $800 million in tax revenues per year. I also recently explained how the US government is looking to saddle our own domestic banks with the same costly requirements, making a crazy and destructive law even worse.
I can’t find a way to post this as a separate comment, but the Federal Register “Name & Shame” list has just been posted for the previous quarter. Oddly, there are only 45 names on it…and I am not included.
https://www.federalregister.gov/articles/2013/02/14/2013-03378/quarterly-publication-of-individuals-who-have-chosen-to-expatriate-as-required-by-section-6039g
Thanks, brucenewman,
Eric has posted and it now has many comments: http://isaacbrocksociety.ca/2013/02/13/fbi-says-three-thousand-renounced-us-citizenship-last-quarter-but-irs-claims-it-was-just-45/
Many of us did not make it on to the list. Amazing sleight of hand — only 45 names.
@Brucenewman
Also, you can try posting that on the CFand P web site. I don’t think their moderation is that consistent, as sometimes the comments show up, and sometimes they do not. Mine have been hit and miss, but I see that Blaze and others have shown up recently, so give it a shot.
I believe the Federal Register ONLY publishes the names of the of those renunciants who meet the IRS’s definition of “covered expatriates” i.e. those persons whose assets or income exceed certain very high thresholds listed in IRS form 8854 or whose tax situation still remains unclear.
Thus the list would represent “only the tip of the iceberg” compared to the total number of renunciants….
(After all, how many of us have a net worth of over $2 million??? – which is one of the figures involved.)
It’s a real tragedy that the press is treating the Federal Register list as if it were the total number, when the real total must be very, very much higher!
“But instead of implementing sensible, pro-growth tax policy, greedy US politicians have decided to make it the responsibility of the entire world to help chase down every potential dollar for them to waste.”
Best one-sentence review of FATCA so far.
@Sad-in-the-UK
That is not entirely true. See Petros comment here
“CF&P is leading the effort by educating lawmakers, industry and the media. Thanks to these efforts we are confident that legislation to reverse FATCA is just around the corner, but it will take continued vigilance, public pressure and the support of hard working Americans to put an end to this lunacy.”
Another important statement indicating CF&P’s commitment to ending FATCA. Never thought I’d be supporting such a traditionally “right-wing” organization, but FATCA and the rest has created many strange bedfellows!