This is the interview we’ve been waiting for and I am providing this new post as I want it to be visible enough for everyone to access.
Dear Doug,
I wanted to follow up and say thank you very much for your participation on our program for our recent expatriation roundtable discussion, and for helping to make the event a success. Jim was very pleased with the discussion, which I am sure will be very helpful and a welcome voice to expatriates in our listening audience.
Our recording of the discussion has been posted to our website, and is available for listening at http://www.financialsensenewshour.com/broadcast/insider/fsn2013-1022-expatrt-j8d3k9s.mp3.
Please accept my best wishes for your health and happiness in all your future endeavors.
Cheers,
Kyle
Kyle Otto
Program Manager
Again,
James J Puplava, CFP, President, Chief Investment Strategist at PFS Group, with:
…Mark Nestmann, President of the Nestmann Group, Ltd.; Marylouise Serrato, Executive Director of American Citizens Abroad; Daniel Küttel, American expatriate living in Bremgarten, Switzerland; and Douglas Benedict, Canadian citizen and retired investment advisor. Daniel and Douglas share personal testimonials as expatriates enduring the overzealous pursuit of a government that has wrongfully identified them as tax evaders. Mark sheds light on the draconian FATCA compliance regulations that have erroneously identified law-abiding citizens as suspects, and Marylouise provides insight into the challenges of Americans who have elected to live abroad, offering help with the rigors of tax compliance and life away from the homeland.
I love the rhetorical question in the roundtable title.
The US government hasn’t just alienated American abroad. They’ve royally pissed off most foreign governments (and not only because of the NSA), and (not only in Canada I’m sure) they’re going to really “alienate” a whole swath of non-American citizens of those other countries, once they realize what FATCA is doing to their nations’ sovereignty and their fellow citizens and residents whom they damn well know are NOT “tax cheats.”
Once again: America — the drunken, stupid bull in the china shop. Quick: someone throw a rope around its neck and tie it up, before it does even more damage.
Thanks for posting this, Calgary. What a great discussion. Let us hope there were lots of homeland Americans listening.
I’m very much afraid that the number of listeners to this type of broadcast must be very limited.
Similarly, the attention paid to blog posts at the G&M or elsewhere is probably minuscule.
If you don’t agee, look up the number of viewers of some of our You Tube uploads (a few hundred)
I suppose we shouldn’t just give up. Seems to me however that contact with politicos and lobbyists should be more effective. Now if we could only get M. Wente or G. Simpson to come out………
That was really good. The interviewer provided the right amount of outrage where necessary. It seemed to be well edited. I tried to imagine how it would impact me if I was hearing this stuff for the first time, and I think I would be sufficiently outraged after hearing it, but if it didn’t effect me personally I’d probably just say “poor bastards” and remind myself never to move abroad. If we aren’t appreciated for our existence now, how can our loss ever be measured?
My husband and I listened to this together and we both said afterwards, almost simultaneously, “That was really well done!” Everyone expressed very clearly all the highlights of FATCA (oops, maybe that should be lowlights). It was worth waiting for and now we hope there will be more forums just as good as this one. Ours thanks to all involved.
@ SwissPinoy — You are getting to be a real radio pro.
@Em, thanks, but I need more practice. If I can talk about FATCA to all the radio stations in the US, then I’ll become a real pro! 🙂
@KalC, this is mission impossible. We are fighting againt all odds. The US goverment is unmoveable and very many Americans living in America feel that they have no political power. This is the reason why some individuals wrongly resort to violence, since they feel that nothing else will have an impact upon the US government (middle-east conflict). Why else do you think that I renounced? I renounced because I cannot change the US government and need to protect my family from flawed policy. However, renouncing never meant that I would stop fighting non-violently for justice. Just take it one step at a time and do it for the fun of it without expecting anything. I’m really the last person who would ever want to have this type of exposure in the US, but I did it for the benefit of others. Don’t pay attention to the numbers. It only takes one person at the right place and the right time to make miracles happen. I believe in miracles! How could I not? For years, I maintained a system called “Miracle”, and it really did do miracles for me!
By the way, my kid strongly protested that I made no mention of them.
@SwissPinoy
I like your philosophy!
Very thorough interview, laying out the problems faced by Americans abroad for those willing to listen. I agree with the comment, though, that those listening are probably mostly those affected. If I were a homelander, I fear this might sound almost too smooth and scripted to be believable. Only because I am on the butt end of all this do I know it is the stark truth. Not sure what improvements I could suggest, but thanks to all involved for making this broadcast happen, at least.
@foo
I agree, it does sound too bad to be true! That’s why showing ourselves in protests and the “We are not a myth” photo campaign is so important. We’re ordinary people living ordinary lives, extraordinarily affected by extraordinary legislation.
When I clicked on the link to listen this morning, the link did not work. I have updated the link and it seems to work now — for anyone who didn’t get to the broadcast. This is an excellent discussion with knowledgeable persons, in no way scripted.
The link is broken. I think there is an extra dot at the end that should be removed.
Great podcast. Loved it. I wished I could have participated and bring the immigrant perspective, but I just can’t to take the risk now…
Great job!
Chris, can you please try it again. I noticed, too, that it did not work this morning. I thought I had fixed it — and it is now working again for me.
Earlier this week the ACA wrote a letter to officials in the US Treasury and IRS requesting that “same country” bank accounts be excluded from FATCA reporting requirements:
http://americansabroad.org/files/4413/8331/4736/same-country-exception-letter.pdf
@innocente
Thanks for posting that. Yes, exemptions should be made for same country bank accounts on the same premise that <$50 balances aren't reported: that we aren't worth the cost of pursuing in terms of revenue.
This won't help the banks one iota though – they'll still have to find us to exempt us.
Yes, innocente, thanks for the ACA letter link. Sort of a catch 22 — we would have to turn ourselves in to our “foreign” financial institutions for the FFIs to then turn our information over to the US IRS to trust they would give us an exemption to, as in Canada, our registered Canadian accounts.
The ACA missed the ball with this proposal. I will write them about this. While they wanted to propose something to the Treasury to help, the proposal is too Central European/Swiss centric. I object strongly to it on two conditions:
1. I think Mark Twain will echo this one. 50 miles is way too small a distance for the Nordic countries. Many Swedes work in Norway because the money is better, but they keep their residences in Sweden. A lot of them live a lot further than 50 miles from the border because we only have a few large cities in Sweden and many of those who work in Norway commute once a week. Even those who live in smaller towns will live further from the border or cross-border bank than 50 miles.
2. For people who live in high tax countries, it is better for us to take a foreign tax credit and stay away from Form 2555 and the associated FEIE. If the ACA suggestion is implemented, we will be forced to file another form that we do not want to file.
So the intention was good, but there are lots of holes in this proposal that favor only those in Central Europe. ACA needs to recognize other conditions beyond those of Switzerland.
On a more positive note, the radio interview was excellent. I have already distributed the link to many people.
I’ve talked to our ACA advocates, hoping my argument would stick. Indeed I raised a light bulb. THe EU/EES model is supposed to be the United States of Europé, and everyone should have free ability to live, work, and do business over the borders of the states of Europé.
It also yet needs to recognize history. One’s home country can change with jobs or if one wants to fall in love with someone from a different country each year. It’s impractical to Close bank accounts in the land of previous love and move it to the country of next love—-Exchange losses is one reason.. Also, one retirement account per country worked.
Of course, USA has a choice—how much does it want to prevent its Citizens from moving around and how much it wants its Citizens to succeed and how much of its Citizens success it wants to share.
ahhhh, I see it is dated in the last week. Well, ACA does its best to propose as much as they can that is less bad than what currently exists—things that can slide in at policy level rather than via legislation–and sometimes the IRS listens.
Europé also has its responsibility to propose these types of things in their IGA proposals, but then that would asking too much for the EUropeans to have spines.