From The Ludwig von Mises Institute, a well-researched article entitled FATCA and the End of Bank Secrecy by Cezary Blaszczyk, a graduate of the Faculty of Law at Warsaw University. In reference to recent news about America’s wide-ranging online surveillance operations, Mr. Blaszcyk notes that:
Few, if any, of those commenting of late on such affairs mentioned that numerous nations across the globe actually acknowledged the U.S. government’s anti-privacy offensive months before by accepting its Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA).
Blaszcyk demonstrates how little resistance there has been to FATCA from foreign governments, in particular from those in Europe, whom he implies should really know better:
It seems that there is little understanding that it was banking secrecy that helped to resist twentieth-century dictatorships and that high tax rates — not money havens — are responsible for tax evasion, as Prince Hans-Adam of Lichtenstein has pinpointed. Clearly the amount of information collected for the purpose of future tax investigation is enormous, leaving little place for human privacy and dignity. Most importantly, it raises a question as to who gave participating states a right to gather information on people that are not their citizens.
With reference to the article’s concluding sentence:
“Most importantly, it raises a question as to who gave participating states a right to gather information on people that are not their citizens.”
On the contrary, it should be noted that many US Persons ARE, in fact, citizens of these same participating states. As dual citizens, frequently “accidental”, they may have very little if any connection to their US place of birth. Therefore, the most egregious aspect of FATCA IGA’s is how a country would agree to gather information about their OWN citizens and willingly hand it over to a FOREIGN government – the United States of America. THIS is the greatest betrayal of all, for it represents an existential threat not only to individual citizens but to entire nations as they willingly forfeit their national sovereignty to appease the American Empire.
The US is engaged in a veritable world war of intimidation and treasury-raiding and it is winning without a single shot being fired. This callous, undeserving victor is laughing all the way to every bank around the globe.
Are there any efforts by groups to organize class action suits against IRS,countries,banks etc.for this massive betrayal instead of suffering helplessly?
@J.N.
Stay tuned – the first ones you see will likely start in Canada soon, or we have no reason to be here.
I admire your tenacity! I must admit though that I’m not so optimistic and am, instead, doing all I can to simplify my situation and just survive. We’re heading towards a Big Brother society.
It may sound cowardly of me but fear that people getting too outspoken about all this could be singled out. I’m inclined to duck and dive…who’s to say they wouldn’t use Fear and 8938 as weapons to cudgel someone who, for instance, failed to disclose their oyster bus card account??
They could turn vindictive and go after non-filers as easy targets via FATCA since their unfiled tax returns would still have completely open statutes of limitations on them. See what I mean??
I don’t believe they’ll normally be so vindictive with expats and renunciants but could see them turning really nasty to anyone they don’t like. I hope I’m wrong, of course, but fear we’re heading into a brave new world.
@Mona Lisa, I don’t think it sounds cowardly of you at all. I do think they may turn vindictive too when the numbers for renouncing soar even more next year and the year after that. They will take it as a personal insult to their country without even wanting to understand what THEY have done here to people.
Myself, I’m already outted with my real name and while that is scary, I will exercise my rights as a Canadian to tell the truth and speak freely. I do not hold any ill will towards that country but, do not feel what they are doing to every one of us is right. It’s not just us, look what they do to whistleblowers and journalists these days? All of this is wrong. We may be headed to a brave new world. I guess that is so but, I just cannot sit in silence while it happens. To do so for me anyway would be to let down myself, my family and everything I have always believed in. I’m scared to death but, also resent being made to feel this way. My first reaction inside is to put my head deep in the sand because they seem to instil a deep fear these days. I’m fighting that fear but, don’t know how long that will last. If you are a coward then so am I.
@Atticus, a propos: Latest journalist attack on his partner: http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/aug/18/david-miranda-detained-uk-nsa
The UK is Obama’s poodle
@monalisa1776
“The UK is Obama’s poodle”
If not the 51st state already. :^(
Thank you Petros. I feel absolutely horrible for Mr. Greenwald. I am also inspired by him..What kind of a world is it today when he is alone in that kind of reporting and is gone after by not one but, two governments now! I’m appalled at what we’ve become in the so called “free” world.
@Atticus, it’s why I’m inclined to keep my head down so I can make a clean break. I figure that if I’m sqeaky-clean with my reporting and filing, it means they’ll be less likely to harass me, especially as I’ve got the poodle passport…;) perhaps if I’d become an Iranian or North Korean it might have been far more difficult. 😛
It’s why I’ll ‘happily’ declare my cell balance, oyster, etc. Better safe than sorry. Just one more year till that 8854 and final 1040 are filed…
Two years ago I blogged this would come down to a discrimination issue. The question still remains should a dual US-EU citizen resident in the EU be treated differently than any other EU citizen resident as well as long as all financial connections with the US have been severed?
Someone needs to bring this to court within the EU.
Don – I absolutely agree with you. It is absolute discrimination against EU, Canadian, UK (they rolled over like a drunk poodle on their own citizens) and others who are citizens of these countries and residents and also happen to be US Persons as defined by the US Government. The EU has been so quiet about this issue. A type of ‘quietness’ that has not been evident since they were last quiet back circa 1939. I am very hopeful that Canada will be a shining light here and fight this aggressively in the Canadian courts.
I say it again if the EU would have stood up to this it would be dead issue. In fact the rest of group of 8 should have told US use resident based taxation and stop with company using transfer based pricing.
Perhaps some of the silence or acquiescence to FATCA is like that to NSA spying. We are told by polls and US media that American’s support it, and probably the same pollsters, if they every polled on FATCA would construct the questions to get the positive result, like “Do you support FATCA transparency requirements to stop offshore tax evasion.” The answer would then be trumpeted as “overwhelming support!”
Next time you hear that argument on NSA spying, you might want to keep this article tucked into your rebuttal arsenal…
NSA Surveillance Scandal: The Polls Are In, and NSA Spying is Really, Really Unpopular
Maybe the day will come when we can see a headline like that for FATCA, or maybe, being soberly realistic, NOT!
I keep linking the two in everything I tweet or comment. “If you like NSA spying, then you will love FATCA!”
On the subject of Greenwald. I have been reading and following him for years, and so when he was the conduit for Snowden’s revelations it didn’t surprise me. It is only recently that I realized though that he is living in Brazil, and as an American abroad, he certainly has to be aware of FATCA and Citizenship taxation issues. I think we should all be reaching out to him a bit more on the subject and association of FATCA with NSA spying. If he ever took a public stand with this media platform, it would reach a progressive audience that might not have considered it before,
And to make things worse. Here comes another old “zombie”. http://www.craveonline.com/music/articles/558075-sopa-returns-govt-trying-to-revive-felony-streaming-provisions
SOPA is back again. Which means that any news videos that are up on Isaac Brock are subject to SOPA if we don’t fight this as well. All moving towards a BIG BROTHER USA. Disgusts the hell out of me.
@The_Animal. and we are surprised? Ideologues and Big Monied special interests are hard to stop. Given our legislative process, it is easy to slip what they want into some unrelated bill, and so hard to dig out the provisions and get attention to stop it in its tracks. They just try and try again, and eventually get their way!
Well, doing the ostrich and sticking our heads in the sand isn’t going to stop this government. And as a creative, I do have a problem with this bill. I make my living off photography. Case in point. If my photograph is too similar to another person’s photograph (despite the fact that you may have taken the photo with your own camera and by legal copyright standards have legal claim to your own photograph), an unscrupulous photographer can turn around and have the authorities after me for my photo being too similar to his (through SOPA can shut my website down and potentially make me a criminal because people are too stupid to consider EXIF data as a viable piece of evidence).
Yeah, sure, the government can keep trying to pass the legislation, but if we take a blind eye (it doesn’t affect me) attitude towards any freedom-repressing legislation, then we all lose. Not just with FATCA but with every other repressive legislation that comes down the turnpike.
Hello Animal.You say:Yeah, sure, the government can keep trying to pass the legislation, but if we take a blind eye (it doesn’t affect me) attitude towards any freedom-repressing legislation, then we all lose. Not just with FATCA but with every other repressive legislation that comes down the turnpike. I’m not a lawyer,no experience in that field,unfortunately.Among us thousands(or millions) of citizens abroad,non-USA residents who are harassed by Fatca etc:is there no-one or group who can help us fight with class action suits against::the Banks,IRS,EU,etc?Together we might have POWER..Alone:I feel we’re helpless.
I’m in the same boat as you. My wife is stuck on this FATCA mess and now Sen. Amy Klobuchar throws this in the mix. FATCA may not affect me directly, but it does indirectly due to my wife. And my business could potentially be under fire due to SOPA.
Class action suits cost money. Unfortunately, money is not something that my wife and I have a whole hell of a lot of. At the risk of sounding like an anarchist; I’m starting to believe more and more that the only way that this government will ease the stranglehold is by removing it from power by violent protest. And the other thing to consider there is the fact that several federal government agencies have put in request forms for ammunition. Sort of makes one wonder what the government agencies are expecting to happen.
Monty Pelerin, an economist, stated it clearly: “I fear the majority of the American people are too dumbed down to understand what is happening to them and their country. They appear too content collecting whatever benefits the government buys them off with. These benefits will cease when the economy can no longer be pillaged. By then, it will likely be too late.”
Is violence the answer? I don’t know, but we are rapidly running out of alternative answers.
Another Monty Pelerin comment “Unless government oppression is beaten back, there is no hope for the future. For those who focus on the foolish economic policies, they miss the root cause of all of our problems — oversized, overactive, interventionist, overcontrolling and oppressive government. Unless government can be reduced in size and power dramatically and then put back into its Constitutional box, nothing will improve in the economy. Ultimately the economy will collapse and freedom will be lost.”
My question to you is: What will it take? Because as of right now it stands to reason that we have “no hope”…and not just in the United States, but in Canada and other countries as well. Unless we reduce our corrupt bureaucracy, we will all suffer that fate.
I repeat:CLASS ACTION SUIT: if the millions(so we’re told there are) of Overseas NON-RESIDENT USA citizens,(mostly probably like me in a no-tax )or low-tax bracket could unite:This is not something that we as individuals can finance,but as a massive group?How many Isaac Brock readers are we here?How many American Citizens Abroad?How to spread the idea?Am I naive?Maybe.But I’m very angry and disappointed and shocked: by the Citizen- taxation versus Resident-taxation ,The World Banks’ treachery of their clients by divulging information that should have remained secret,
in which country for the suit?
J.N.,
Re Canada:
http://isaacbrocksociety.ca/2013/08/19/usd-school-of-law-procopio-international-tax-2013-international-update-u-s-mexico-canada-cross-border-tax-issues/comment-page-2/#comment-493911
It is almost certain there will be a class-action suit in Canada when the proper time comes, after Canada signs away our rights in a FATCA inter-governmental agreement with the US. See: http://maplesandbox.ca/2013/expert-fatca-violates-charter/
and,
http://maplesandbox.ca/2013/harper-is-proroguing-parliament-what-will-this-mean-for-fatca/#comment-9049
@ J.N.
Where are we re: lawsuits? I’d say we are in the “preparing to commence to thrash” stage (as my husband would say) or maybe even slightly before that stage. But thrash we will if we need too. Meanwhile we protest FATCA whenever and wherever the opportunities present themselves. If you see an article somewhere, feel free to jump in with a comment yourself. Try not to let misconceptions about the true consequences of FATCA go unchallenged. And, BTW, all Brockers and Sandboxers share your outrage.