This was proposed by Just Me and seconded by a few others so I thought we could take a shot at it together.
The basic idea is to create a one page (maybe two) tract that could be used as a template – something that could be adapted to the local circumstances. It could be sent to journalists, passed out during demonstrations or just emailed to people we know who are still very confused about what FATCA is, what it means, and why they should care.
Here are the latest updates as of September 17, 21:51 Paris time.
What is FATCA?
The Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) is an extra-territorial U.S. law that demands that all financial institutions in the world report to the United States’ Internal Revenue Service (IRS) the confidential account information of millions of people it classifies as “U.S. persons”.
What is a U.S. Person?
A U.S. Person can be a U.S. citizen, a Green Card Holder, or the citizen of another country who has a connection to the United States.
Here’s how you may have a US connection:
* born in the USA
* born outside the USA with one or two American parent(s)
* lived in the USA for a number of years
* visited too long in the USA in any given year
* married to a US person
* share signing authority on an account with a
US person
Chances are very good that you, or someone you know, is a U.S. Person. That means FATCA affects you personally. Millions of people worldwide who do not consider themselves to be U.S. citizens are still considered U.S. Persons by the U.S. government even if they have never lived or worked in the U.S., are citizens of another country, and have never held a U.S. passport or Green Card.
But I’m not a tax evader or a U.S. citizen or Green Card Holder!
Under FATCA you are presumed to be guilty until proven innocent.
If your local bank suspects you are a U.S. Person, they will require that you prove you aren’t.
If you clearly are a U.S. Person, and your country has signed an agreement with the United States (called an “IGA”), then your local bank will send your account information to your local government who will then turn it over to the United States.
Under these agreements, this will happen even if your country has strict laws protecting personal privacy. So far the following countries have either signed these agreements or have agreed to do so: UK, France, Germany…..
What will the United States do with that information?
Under American law U.S. Persons are also U.S. taxpayers. Those who live outside the United States are required to file tax returns, bank account reports and pay American taxes. This is true even if the U.S. Person earns no income and has no assets in the United States.
You might consider yourself a responsible tax-paying citizen of another country but the United States sees it differently. If they think you are a U.S. Person then they feel they have the right to add you to the American tax base.
There are others ways they could use that information. If enough countries are bullied into complying then the United States government will have a master list in their databases of all the people (and their assets) in the world who have any connection however innocent to the United States of America. That sounds a lot like the recent NSA scandals where the United States spied on citizens of other countries.
FATCA is spying by other means.
But I thought FATCA and all those reporting rules only applied to the rich?
Not true. FATCA impacts ALL U.S. Persons: rich, middle, or low income .
The filing threshold for one form, the FBAR (Foreign Bank Account Report), is only 10,000 USD. This threshold is the total of all that person’s accounts (checking, savings, and retirement) combined – not the value of any one account. This means that even very low-income U.S. Persons must file and face stiff penalties – up to 500,000 USD and 5 years in jail – if they fail to do so. The American IRS can impose these fines even if the U.S. Person is too poor to file a tax return and doesn’t owe any tax.
I’m not a U.S. Person and I don’t have any connection to the United States. What does FATCA have to do with me?
FATCA impacts ALL citizens in ALL countries in three ways:
1. All financial institutions worldwide are affected by FATCA. The billions they will spend in compliance costs will be passed along to customers in all countries through higher FEES.
2. Local governments and local taxpayers will bear the cost of the staff and information systems required to implement FATCA in that country.
3. Existing privacy and anti-discrimination laws will have to be downgraded in every country in order to facilitate FATCA. This means that citizens everywhere can expect less protection of their privacy from their local government.
Part IV (What they can do about it)
Some ideas for this section:
Here I would point them to Isaac Brock first as a resource. As them to join us or pass the link around to people they know who are affected by FATCA.
Then we can list the other sites we think they would find useful: Maple Sandbox, ACA, AARO and so on.
In the event that the factsheet is updated sometime could there be a notice at the top stating “last updated on [date]”. It would be a heads up to those of us who may have printouts made and want to keep the latest version on hand. Still hoping the factsheet will be kept at the top of the main page — at least the beginning part with the rest “after the jump”. I like the logo — very eye catching. Sorry, Victoria, I am blanking on that kickass ending. But here’s my 3rd haiku to hopefully inspire someone to come up with something …
FATCA will try to
Beat you down so help yourself
With facts and Brock friends.
I know this is petty, but it’s visually distracting when all the words don’t meet the left margin 🙂
@ bubblebustin
The left margin? You mean it should be like a newspaper column? Words aligned on both sides? I think the term is to “justify”.
Not necessarily justified, but having all the lines meeting up against the left margins. You can see two are indented:
So far the following countries have either signed these agreements or have agreed to do so: UK, France,
in the world who have any connection however innocent to the United States of America. That sounds a
Oh I see. I missed that. I think it will get all lined up in the final version. It’s looking and reading very good overall. Thanks to Victoria’s handywork we’ll have a useful tool available for future actions.
Yes, the context is great and flow is very nice. Thank you all.
I just cut and pasted the factsheet into a WP document and it is almost 2 pages long without the logo inserted. I reduced all the margins too. Hmmmmm. Might have to use smaller type.
Last night I took Victoria’s fact sheet, jiggered it around a bit and it is definitely 2 pages long. (That’s with a Geneva font, margins reduced to 1/2 inch and type size of 10 rather than the usual 12.) It was spilling well into the second page anyway so I just added bits and bobs to completely fill 2 pages — no wasted space. It’s too long to post as a comment (that would change the formatting anyway) so I’m going to try to learn how to do a PDF file and put it in this thread. However, I have to wait for my husband to get back from the USA to coach me on PDFing.
@Em
I hope you enjoy your intimate moment of PDFing with your husband 😉
My husband usually gets frustrated when comes to him teaching me anything on the computer.
@ bubblebustin
After I posted that I had the same thought as you did. 😉
Husband just got back. Making the PDF was easy BUT how do I get it into a comment?
PDF file FATCA – Fact Sheet
Everyone please note that my “FATCAsheet” is 99% Victoria’s work and I just hope I didn’t mess it up too much.
@Em and @Victoria..
I printed and will be going to a party next weekend which if someone asks I can have them read this. I am treading lightly because I don’t want to seem like I am obsessed with this and narcissistic.
I forgot to say how well written it is…THanks for taking the time and hard work to do this Thank you very very much.
I’m trying to put myself in another’s shoes reading this, someone who has never heard of FATCA. What a clear description. How could any Canadian or citizen of another country allow the US to do this to some of their citizens / residents and in the process leech dollars from that country’s treasury? Thanks, Victoria, for your way with words and to Em for formatting it into something that can be printed on one sheet, both sides.
I’ll give 100 LCUs to anyone who can get it all down to one page (no cheating you can’t go smaller than a type size of 10). 🙂 I just said what the heck, the main thing is to present something that is from our perspective and not from someone in the compliance industrial complex. I needed something fairly soon so I took the liberty. Anyone can jigger Victoria’s great groundwork piece to suit their own style and their country’s vernacular. The slogan on the STOP FATCA graphic (thanks Canadian Girl) can be easily changed if you have photoshop. I put “Protect Canada from this U.S. law.” on the business cards I’m using.
@Em, good job! Useful work – for all of us wanting to spread the news without killing too many trees, and losing people with too many words. This will also be helpful for the upcoming Ottawa protest!
Em, I will give it a go. One page? It’s probably possible. I was an English teacher (in another life). Editing is like breathing.
I once spent a summer working for an insurance company. My job was to edit their field manual, a bloated and badly written thing. They hired me for 6 weeks. It took me two weeks. Barely. Most people use far too many words. I halved that manual.
No promises though. Victoria is a good writer. The VP of that insurance company was not.
@ YogaGirl
Go for it. I once, long ago, was required to write a manual for my tiny department. It was supposed to be done according to a rather odd and rigid template. Let’s just say I broke that plate in couple of places and managed to slip in some jokes too. The hospital got its A+ accreditation despite me. 😉
Okay, so I did it. But, I had to take out all the … emotional “baggage”.
We get very heated in our explanations and really go overboard with info and super-charged language and such. Which is fine in an essay but doesn’t work for a fact sheet. Hence the word, “fact”.
It needs to be short and too the point or no one will read it. Too many sentences and paragraphs and “feelings” and most people will circular file it as soon as possible.
So I really stripped it.
I can’t make a pdf. I don’t have the software for it, so I will past it here and someone else can take it, leave it, rework or whatever.
Thanks, Em for doing the hard work!
What is FATCA?
The Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) is a U.S. tax law which expects financial institutions in other countries to report to the U.S tax agency, the IRS, confidential account information of people the United States considers U.S. persons for taxable purposes.
Who is a U.S. person?
You may be considered a U.S. person for any of the following reasons:
* born in the U.S.A.
* born outside the U.S.A. to at least one American parent
* lived in the U.S.A. or are a green card holder
* visited too long in the U.S.A. in any given year (180 days over 3 years is the maximum time allotted)
* married to a U.S. person
* sharing a financial account or granting signing authority over an account to a U.S. person
What information will FATCA collect?
FATCA requires financial institutions to report annually to the IRS on a variety of financial accounts like checking, savings, retirement and investment accounts. Information to be shared includes account numbers, highest yearly balances and account transactions. This reporting is in addition to information that all U.S. persons are required to fill with the IRS every year, regardless of where they live, even though they may owe no U.S. tax at all due to their countries tax treaties with the U.S.
What will the U.S.A. do with all that information?
The IRS uses it to verify its own tax records and is authorized to hand over the information collected from other U.S. agencies including the NSA and the FBI.
Isn’t FATCA about catching rich tax evaders?
No, FATCA is about collecting the financial details of all people living outside the U.S., who the U.S. deems U.S. persons, whether they be upper, middle or low income. The information is sent by your bank to the IRS, or if your government has a special arrangement with the U.S. called an inter-governmental agreement (IGA), your country’s tax agency will collect and send the information to the U.S. It’s like an inventory of assets.
But I’m not a U.S. person. What does FATCA have to do with me?
Your bank will look through your accounts, searching for any indication that you might be a U.S. person. For example receiving funds into your account from a U.S. source, owning a vacation property or being married to an American citizen are viewed as “connections” to the U.S. If indications are found, you will be asked to prove that you are not a U.S. person by providing evidence such as a passport or birth certificate. Failure to do this will be seen as proof that you are a U.S. person and subject to their tax laws. Your country’s privacy laws will not prevent this from happening if there is an IGA between your government and the U.S.
In addition FATCA is expensive for financial institutions, and your government, to implement and run. The cost of enforcing this U.S. law will likely be passed on to you as a bank customer and citizen in the form of higher fees and taxes.
FATCA is being forced on your government and financial institutions right now, but it can be stopped.
Contact your government representative and ask about what is being done.
For more information visit these websites: isaacbrocksociety.ca; maplesandbox.ca; repealfatca.com or contact American Citizens Aboard at americansabroad.org or the Association of Americans Resident Overseas at aaro.org
@ Yoga Girl
Good work! The 100 LCUs are in the mail. It fits the page (using the same font, type size and margins as mine) but I can’t get Canadian Girl’s graphic on it (oh well). I’ll PDF it and e-mail it to calgary411. She’s the one who can post it in a comment. I’ll put the questions in bold, okay? Thank you, thank you.
Yes, questions are bold and websites in italics.
You are welcome and it’s no charge. lol. It was totally my pleasure.
Yipes I sent the e-mail already. The websites didn’t get into italics. Sorry.
Here it is — I haven’t italicized the websites but will as soon as I have some more time this morning. (calgary411)
FATCA OnePageFactSheet
@all
Great work. As soon it is PDFd I will print it.
I have question on what happens when your bank is told by you that you are an american person. If you don’t get any American funds are you kicked off you accounts? Do the Canadian banks take a percentage of your accounts from Canadian sources and give to IRS? Are you deported? Just what happens to one. In my case I am waiting for my CLN, do I tell my Canadian bank when they ask? What happens? I filed us taxes while a resident in Canada up to and including 1993 when I became a citizen. I guess we don’t know yet when the start asking. In June 2014?