Victoria and Blaze ask in the article: How did the “simple premise” of “cracking down on illegal tax evasion and closing loopholes” become an attack on financial lives and personal integrity of millions of people living outside United States, their banks and laws and constitutions of their countries of residence?”
very very good
Several of us have already shared via private email our congratulations to Lynne (and Victoria, whose private email I don’t have, so I’ll thank her publicly here). As I’ve said in my emails to others, including my friends and family in the US, this excellent and well-reasoned article explains what is so horribly wrong with this arrogant, imperialistic stupidity. I’ve also copied the link, with appropriate comments, to my MP and to Mulcair and Flaherty; I urge other Canadians to call this blog to our politicians’ attention. Let’s hope it makes some sort of difference, though I’m not holding my breath. For decades I’ve thought the US political system is too terminally dysfunctional for American politicians to be able to come to their senses and behave sanely and rationally on this and most other issues, but I’ll be delighted to be proved wrong. Getting this article published in that blog is a huge coup, I think.
Well done, Lynne and Victoria! Past and present US persons outside the US owe you a debt of gratitude.
@schubert1975
I’ll second your comment.
Although fighting FATCA is a long and torturous task, I do feel that the Anti-FATCA movement is starting to gain some traction. The Hill piece puts more sand under our wheels.
Proud to know you two ladies. Thank you for talent and whatever you did to get this piece published.
@ Blaze and Victoria
I don’t know how you managed to get a place on The Hill but we all thank you very much for your collaborative piece. It’s double plus good. Let’s hope some congressional eyes will see the light you provided; some congressional ears will get burned by some much deserved flack regarding their legislating without due diligence; and some congressional mouths will finally be put in proper motion to begin the process of tearing down that treacherous CBT wall with the FATCA razor wire on top.
Thanks everyone for your comments. It was both fun and an honour to work with Victoria on this.
Within a couple of hours of submitting it to The Hill on Friday, the editor advised it would be published today. That was amazing because two other prominent publications had not accepted it.
Victoria and I wrote another article, which she is submitting elsewhere.
Plus, earlier today I heard from the editor of a Canadian publication where I pitched another article late Friday afternoon. I was stunned to hear back from him this afternoon (Sunday).
It looks like that one will be a go for some time this week.
I’ve sent this article to Kevin Shoom and Jim Flaherty. I will also send them the article I expect to be published this week.
We’re getting the message out.
My sister in US suggested we contact Dianne Sawyer at ABC World News, Sixty Minutes or Meet The Press. Hmmm…
My sister also asked “Are they going to hunt you down now.” My reply: “Let them try.”
Lynne Swanson (aka Blaze)
London Ontario
@Blaze and Victoria,
Bravo to both of you. I have directed my American relatives to the site.
And, Lynne, if they try to hunt you down, there are a lot of us that will join the battle.
@Em, Watching Lynne was an education for me – she is Obi-wan and I’m just a baby Jedi. I’m learning so much from her and she is GREAT to work with.
@Lynne, Sent a tip off to the Seattle Times today and we’ll see what they say.
As for hunting us down, well, I’m sure they know where we live. If they did, it sure would make one hell of a blog post, right?
Victoria Ferauge (aka Madame Ferauge)
Versailles, France
@Blaze and Victoria…
It is good to have the @TheHill twitter account to use when sending the article via tweets to various Representatives and Senators. Also, it helps with the posting credibility to linkedin FATCA groups. I think I did about 7 or 8 today…
I finally got a comment entered via guess entry as the other method via Disqus is not working for me for reasons I can not figure out. Maybe it is some related to my blocking mechanisms for ads and cookies they don’t like
Lynne and Victoria; wow! thank you for your work! Another breakthrough in trying to counter the US disingenuous propaganda around FATCA and the associated insanity and oppression of CBT/US extraterritorlal taxation.
Nothing about how the IRS is handling any aspect of this makes any rational sense, or does anything but erase any lingering vestige of respect, trust, or goodwill that US citizens and US defined ‘taxable persons’ abroad had for the US and its institutions. It continues to choose the path of squandering and obliterating goodwill, trust and respect of those abroad, as well as those residing in the US who had pre-existing accounts in their country of origin.
There is such a thing as ‘soft power’ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soft_power yet the US relies only on aggression, punishment and brute force as a default – even as applied to its own citizens. I saw this quote today; … “Soft power, as the political scientist Joseph Nye defined it this week in the Financial Times of London, is “the ability to produce outcomes through attraction rather than coercion or payment.” And it often works, unlike hard power which is clumsy, expensive and often destructive….” http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2013/07/27/royal_baby_prince_george_is_britains_source_of_soft_power.html . Though the article I was reading was not specific to our discussions of US extraterritorial taxation, the concept of ‘soft power’ immediately struck me, as we have discussed the fact that the US, IRS and Treasury, Congress, and Senators (ex. Levin, Schumer, et al) and all the authors, enablers and implementers of FATCA are only concerned with using abuse and coercion, even as they make it too punishing and complex even for those who have tried, or would try to be ‘compliant’ with the underlying demands of US extraterritorial taxation.
We have discussed how the US continues to offer us no carrot, only pointed stick. They mistakenly believe, or pretend to believe that the imaginary benefits cited in Cook vs. Tait (1924) http://www.jstor.org/discover/10.2307/1065765?uid=3739448&uid=2129&uid=2&uid=70&uid=3737720&uid=4&sid=21102567654597 http://isaacbrocksociety.ca/2013/01/04/does-cook-v-tait-really-mean-that-citizenship-based-taxation-is-constitutional-in-all-cases/ are enough justification to keep us silent and in thrall – even those who have other choices.
Oppression, aggression, coercion and punishment aren’t going to keep us in the effective orbit of the US. Those of us who can renounce and relinquish will. Others who can stay off the radar will. Those who can resist, will.
Doesn’t sound like winning scenario for the US.
@Blaze and Victoria
Congratulations for the great collaborative work on your fine article and for getting it posted on The Hill. We need to build on this and other recent anti-FATCA “wins” to maintain momentum. I believe some major coverage in the broadcast MSM can’t be much further away.
Now the challenge is to attract more champions representing the entire political spectrum – Rand Paul’s efforts are an admirable start, but he is far too easily dismissed as a fringe element. It is crucial that our efforts be seen and understood as party-agnostic or Congress will never muster the number of votes required someday to repeal not only the symptom of FATCA, but its underlying cause, which is America’s immoral and anachronistic citizenship-based taxation system. It doesn’t really matter whether Congress-people eventually vote for what is right (releasing US Persons from perpetual denigration and bondage) or for what is merely politically and economically expedient (eliminating all traces of reciprocity and allowing the US to remain the world’s biggest tax haven) – as long as FATCA and CBT are dispatched to the dustbin of history.
Onward soldiers of the US Diaspora – we have nothing to lose but our chains!
I think there’s some hope that, as at least some Americans begin to realize what their government is doing, the US administration and in particular the Democrats are going to be in serious political trouble over this. My sister, a farmer in the US heartland who (unusually for anyone living in that State) voted for Obama both times, said this to me in response to my forwarding of this article:
“FATCA seems to me to be a way for USA to help pay off out debt without our USA sacrifice – make someone else pay. I cannot fathom how anyone can think someone who is working in another country and using their services and paying their taxes must pay another country taxes. … With NSA and FATCA, I wonder if we are even a free country anymore. Scarey.”
Get the message out to your friends and relatives in the US. If nothing else, we can help make the Democrats pay for what they’re doing to us and our families, in the 2014 elections. If my sister thinks this way now, and the message spreads, the Democrats will get screwed next year.
Don’t get mad, get even. Get the word out.
@Blaze and Victoria
Terrific!! Great article in a high visibility and very credible blog. Will be forwarding it.
Am curious how the claim that FATCA will generate $800 Billion over ten years was calculated? Even if this dubious claim were true, $80 Billion in annual revenue is a drop in a bucket of red ink. The US is hemorrhaging money. Its Federal government is projected to spend $3.68 trillion in 2013. About $10 Billion per DAY, and about $4 Billion of that is borrowed each and every day.
So at a wildly optimistic guesstimate of $80 B annually, FATCA’s annual revenue burn-rate is 8 days. And that’s not deducting the expense of administration for both the Treasury and US financial institutions.
Many State and municipal are in even worse shape; and FATCA offers nothing but harm and capital flight to states that rely on foreign investment and banking – such as Florida.
Great article Blaze and Victoria. ! I have forwarded it to my NDP MP, Justin trudeau and Kevin Schoom. I let them know that I will keep sending the latest articles so they can negotiate with current and true information. I will on and not give up.
As I just moved away from my computer and looked out the window, I saw one of the most magical sights I have ever seen.
Rain had just stopped. Sky was a bit grey but the trees in the park across the street were shimmering in the sun peeking through and the river was glistening..
Even more magnificent was a vivid double rainbow arching over the park and river. Not one rainbow–two! Perhaps representing Maple Sandbox and Brock working together to make a difference in the dark clouds? Signs of a turning point?
Somewhere over the rainbow…
@Victoria
@Blaze
Congratulations and thanks for a fantastic achievement!
Blaze, Victoria — fantastic! That was well-crafted and easy to understand — which is a big challenge when it comes time to write anything useful about FATCA. And getting it in The Hill — that’s a real coup.
Keep it up — I’m now looking forward to the Canadian version.
DW
@US Citizen Abroad: Part of the credit goes to you. While Victoria and I were on the phone a week ago between Canada and France, we found the video you had posted at renouncecitizenship in October, 2011 of Obama’s 2009 press conference.
http://renounceuscitizenship.wordpress.com/2011/10/29/obama-explains-the-rationale-for-fatca-lauds-work-of-carl-levin/
It was an OMG moment for us. The “simple premise” of what FATCA was originally about–combating offshore tax evasion, 1099s and “restoring fairness and balance”–and how far we were from that goal now.
Speaking of OMG, has anyone heard from her? I hope she’s OK.
@Arrow: Part of the credit also goes to you. We were inspired by some of your earlier writings and wanted to do justice to you–and to the thoughts and efforts of many others, while also communicating to Congress and the White House.
Thanks again so much Lynne and Victoria! The Hill has not been expat friendly and in the past has mis represented what FATCA is and will do. So, it’s a great day to see your article published there! Sharing with everyone, MP, and all my family.
@Blaze and Victoria, Congratulations for the great article as well.
Lynne and Victoria — many thanks to you from me here at Isaac Brock too.
May that collaboration of yours make it to the Seattle Times and beyond and to some Canadian media.
Strength in numbers: Isaac Brock and Maple Sandbox (and Franco-American Flophouse!) working together — I like that sign with hope and positivity!
And this example should shame US representatives and Canadian MPs – because we are forced to make this an open public conversation without their help. Canada and the US- in this instance, two ‘democracies’ where duals and others can’t get their ‘representatives’ to stand up for them, and have to work this hard to have a voice and get some redress and justice.
@badger,
You’ve boiled it down to the nitty-gritty. We are collateral damage; that we and our rights mean so little in the scheme of things should awaken us all. Common sense and fairness should demand a sane solution.
@Lynne and Victoria
Fabulous! I could hardly believe my eyes when I saw you as the authors of this article. However did you do this? Well-written, concise, clear. Let us hope it makes a dent in some of those thick skulls in Congress.
Kind of late to the party but did add my .02 worth. Comments are excellent as well! Not the usual round of “don’t let the door hit you on the way out” kind.
Blaze and Victoria – THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU 🙂