14 thoughts on “The Protect American Investment Act by Senator Pat Roberts”

1. Don’t you just love the ironies.. 🙂

2. In fairness, I don’t imagine the Senator Roberts ever voted for FATCA.

3. Senator Roberts should be aware that what is good for the goose is good for the gander….

4. make sure that you send that bill to your country that is now voting for an IGA.

5. Switzerland deserves to collect its fair share of this tax too.

6. Shockingly funny. So here comes their fair share of the suffering. Does anyone in the U.S. congress understand what they have done here with this global sharing craziness? Anyone? The home landers are going to be screaming about what’s being done to them. Do unto others but, not unto us?

7. Splendid hypocrisy (and absolutely typical: if not of the individual, then certainly of the country).

   Rhetorical question: why would Big Brother persecute private individuals who have relatively little in the way of wealth, while allowing so many billionaires in the financial services industry (to say nothing of a number of politicians) to get off scot-free? And for that matter, if BB wants to generate revenue, why doesn’t it go after all the mind-bogglingly rich corporations who hide billions and billions of dollars (possibly trillions; math was never my strong suit) in various off-shore accounts to avoid paying taxes?

   Suggested supplemental reading/viewing:

   https://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/22/business/for-us-companies-money-offshore-means-manhattan.html?_r=0

   Also, the documentary “Inside Job” is worth watching (in my opinion). It’s okay for the financial services industry and numerous politicians to get away with massive fraud, as long as they don’t have the gall to travel and try to live a simple, modest existence…
   Review: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1645089/?ref_=sr_1

   Also, here is a link to a Rolling Stone article on the Rating Agencies’ involvement, which is one of the many subtopics of the film:
   http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/the-last-mystery-of-the-financial-crisis-20130619#ixzz2WsRymOlz

   I guess it’s easier to pick on the low-hanging fruit who can’t afford to defend themselves…

8. And Bob…

   To pile on, don’t forget that IRS incompetence and plain stupidity, by TIGTA reports contributes more to lost revenue than any pittance FATCA will bring in.. It makes one sick. They aren’t even smart enough to set up processes to screen for dupe addresses and so send 24,000 refund checks to the same address.

   This story at Blaze is based upon an older TIGTA report, but there are plenty current ones too.

   http://bit.ly/14QIu44

9. @ Bob,

   And if you want more crap on the financial industry….

   Here are the newest Untouchables.

   http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/untouchables/

10. Fighting back on POTUS fat cat slam on GA. This isn't about Beyonce or Wall St. Its about manufacturing & small biz http://t.co/CvS2rwKVQc— Pat Roberts (@SenPatRoberts) March 19, 2013

11. Makes me laugh and cry hysterically at the same time. The author may not know anything about FATCA, but regardless, placed against FATCA for contrast, it provides an instance of the the gross hypocrisy of the US in its full glory. Knowing what we know about the US, it makes perfect sense. Re-read it sounds as if it is being written by other countries protesting against the US imposition of FATCA on the rest of the world. The wording and the arguments made are so very familiar.

    There is no point in thinking that our troubles would be over if the US switched to Residence Based Taxation. The fact that the US won’t recognize the beam in its own eye vs the mote in others means it will continue to hurt US citizens and others abroad regardless. That and its endemic xenophobia.

12. this articles indicated that US banks and FI are re-examining KYC provisions for non-resident retirement accounts

    http://www.international-adviser.com/news/tax—regulation/us-institutions-to-expats-take-your-retirement

13. @Patricia
    I have a question…I never had a retirement fund from the USA…nothing followed me from the USA when I came at 21 in 1969 except $200 (shared with my then alive husband).

    in the link http://www.international-adviser.com/news/tax—regulation/us-institutions-to-expats-take-your-retirement

    They are referring to US funds….but what about my earned only in canada RRSPs? I became a citizen in 1993…I will be relinquishing formally next month.

14. @ northernstar

    if you are relinquishing, your Canadian accounts are not affected.

    this is another discriminatory action against non-resident US persons. because of the fees and possible tax consequences of closing retirement accounts, this amounts to a ”pre-exit levy” for US persons living or planning to live abroad.