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.
I’d like to get this ready for Mac printing if that’s okay with you all? I can’t print a docx. on my Mac as I do not have “Word” I could buy Office for Mac but, really don’t want to. I will try to use “Bean” to convert it to PDF. As a way to be able to hand this out sooner, if I’m able to get it as pdf converted from docx.
@all
just to let you know, I saw a painting group yesterday and gave out the one page FATCA sheet. It was well received. Also my friend who was with me at a regional seniors clubs meeting last Sunday asked me for more sheets to give out. Her members were asking about it.
I am going to a party in the GTA area this weekend and will most likely find myself discussing FATCA. I will have my IBS business cards and FATCA fact sheet.
@northernstar,
Good job! If all of us looked for opportunites to hand out the fact sheets, just think how many people we could educate.
I am going to start carrying some with me wherever I go.
@The FACTA Fact Sheet Team,
I can’t convert a .DOX to a PDF. But if someone sends me a Word document (pacifica at isaacbrocksociety dot ca), I can convert that to a PDF and post it.
@Bubblebustin,
I see no need for a disclaimer at the bottom. It’s like writing a letter to the editor, or an article as Lynne and Victoria have done. There’s no reason to presume the author is giving legal advice.
I plan on doing exactly the same thing, Whitekat. I’m going to send it via email to everyone I know and print out reams of copies and put them in my purse (I have a big purse) to hand out wherever I go.
Other ideas might be Linkedin, any reporters we’ve talked to recently and maybe a Facebook page……
Oh and could someone send me the final one-page version?
I will translate it into French (maybe someone else can do so in other languages) and then post it here so everyone can use it.
Re DOCX to PDF: LibreOffice will open a DOCX document and allow you to export it as a PDF. It runs on Windows, OS X, and Linux.
LibreOffice is open source software and is thus free. See http://www.libreoffice.org/. It’s a full blown office suite, so it’s not small.
I just tried converting the DOCX fact sheet to PDF and it seemed to do a reasonable job (can’t be 100% sure as fonts on my system sometimes look less than stellar).
pacifica, would you want the PDF to evaluate?
@ Victoria
I’m not sure what the final version is but this is the one I’ve been e-mailing in pdf form and printing. All I did basically was put some things in bold and correct the spelling of “Abroad”. On my Mac with geneva font, type size 10 and 1/2 inch margins it fits tightly onto one page. Others would have to play around with it in a WP document to achieve the one page goal. I miss the graphic but my IBS business card has that on the back so I’m good to go … unless there’s a major change.
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: isaacbrocksociety.ca – maplesandbox.ca – repealfatca.com – americansabroad.org(American Citizens Abroad) – aaro.org(Association of Americans Resident Overseas)
Perfect, Em. Thank you so much. I will work on translating it tomorrow.
And again thanks to everyone who worked on putting this together. A damn good resource.
Hell, maybe I’ll put one up at the American Church here in Paris. 🙂
I guess that no one’s interested in critiquing my latest edition of the one-pager that Pacifica777 posted for me…sniff…;-)
I’d posted a link to bubblebustin’s last evening, but now it’s on a previous page (Actually I got confused — I thought that was the final version). So I’ll post the text directly here.
This is Bubblebustin’s latest edition:
What is FATCA?
The Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) is a U.S. law that directs every financial institution in the world to report to the U.S tax agency (IRS) confidential bank account information on U.S. persons, wherever they live and regardless of any other citizenship they may have.
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 (meeting the substantial presence test)
• 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 the world’s financial institutions to report annually to the IRS on a variety of everyday bank accounts and more. This reporting is in addition to tax filings the IRS already requires of U.S. persons every year, filings that often result in no tax owing due to tax treaties.
What will the U.S.A. do with all that information?
The IRS will use it to verify its own tax records and is authorized to exchange information with other U.S. agencies such as the NSA and the FBI.
Isn’t FATCA about catching rich tax evaders?
No, FATCA is about collecting the financial details of any individual living outside the U.S.A. who it has deemed a U.S. “person”, regardless of income. The information is sent either by your bank to the IRS, or through a contract with your government called an Intergovernmental Agreement (IGA) – should your country have acceded to one.
But I’m not a U.S. person. What does FATCA have to do with me?
Your bank will look through your accounts that meet specific thresholds, 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 sharing an account with a 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 another passport or birth certificate. It’s predicted that some will need to provide proof that they aren’t a US person – to prove a negative – which can be very difficult, if not impossible to do. Failure to provide proof will be seen as enough evidence that you are a U.S. person and will subject you to their tax laws. Your country’s privacy laws WILL NOT PREVENT THIS FROM HAPPENING should there be an IGA between your government and the U.S.A.
In addition, FATCA is extremely expensive for financial institutions and your government to implement and run. It’s foreseeable that the costs of enforcing this extraterritorial law will be passed on to every bank customer in the form of higher bank fees and to every citizen in the form of higher taxes.
FATCA is being forced on your government and financial institutions right now, but it can be stopped. Contact your government representative and ask what they’re doing to stop it.
For more information visit these websites: isaacbrocksociety.ca; maplesandbox.ca; repealfatca.com or contact American Citizens Abroad at americansabroad.org or the Association of Americans Resident Overseas at aaro.org
When there is a final version, I can give it a permanent page on the site with a link to it on the sidebar for easy access and printing. (As I understand it, the final version will not exactly be cast-in-stone – that is that people will be able to modify it for their particular country or whatever — is that correct?)
My 2c. I like Em’s bolding in her comment above, in particular to see the organisations’ URLs in bold.
Pacifica777
I think the version you just posted above is the most accurate so far.
Excellent! Works very well as a final draft. Clear. Concise. Hits the highlights and is short. Well done.
@Tdott,
Thanks for your advice on converting DOCX to PDF!
I’ve created a FATCA Fact Sheet Page with a permanent link on the sidebar. Not sure which of the two “final” versions I saw on this thread is “the” final version – and we can’t exactly do a vote on it – so I put them both up. They’re both excellent. And if someone else has a FACTA handbill idea to share, please do.
Looking forward to the French translation – and hopefully a few more languages.
Thank you Pacifica777!
It’s all good. Thank you Pacifica. I’d still like to see a “sticky” post at the top of the daily posts so that first time visitors would spot it immediately (not the pdf link — the fact sheet itself). It would be great to include, in the same “sticky”, a similar fact sheet for CBT/RBT — or even just a brief intro to CBT/RBT plus the ACA video which explains it all so well. It is, after all, U.S. CBT which makes FATCA such a hideous law. After reading the “sticky” newbies could go on reading the rest of the website to get more in depth information. If we are directing people to this site we need to make it visually easy for them to get the basics. I’m obviously very familiar with Brock but it took me a bit of time to find the fact sheet on the sidebar. It’s good to have it there though so Brockers can pick it up, print it up and pass it out.
BTW, did anyone notice Brock has over 4 million hits on the counter now?
I don’t see it Em. I see over 1 million views on the dahsboard.
I must be looking in the wrong place…
Help! 🙂
@victoria, only authors can see the dashboard stats, and that applies only to since the time I added the Jetpack to the website, giving us access to wordpress stats. The ticker at the bottom of the page counts every hit, even if you just refresh the page, and even if it is a webcrawler (to my knowledge); it has been in place since the time we arrived in Canada. There were 600,000 hits on the site before we moved to Canada.
I figured it was ALL hits and I’ll take the “blame” for at least 10,000 of them. I keep IBS open through much of the day and reload it frequently as I read other stuff on the web.
Me too, Em!
Ah, thanks Peter, I see it now.
Wow!!!
Kisses from Versailles,
Victoria