90 thoughts on “The best #FATCA video yet… American Empire and the Most Important Law You’ve Never Heard of…”
I’ve just ordered the Kindle version of “FATCA and the New Birth of American Empire” at amazon.ca (to be delivered to my Kindle for PC) and as a bonus I saw and purchased Kindle version of “Twelve Years a Slave” for CAD1.99 as I haven’t seen the movie yet (recommended by USCitizenAbroad). Thanks once again, osgood!
Starts out:
A Preliminary Note to American Expats. Before we start, I should clarify what this essay will not do. It has no advice for US citizens living abroad who are trying to deal with FATCA. The legislation is terrible for my fellow expats, especially those who have built a long-term life outside the US. Many have had their life’s savings threatened because they were unwise enough to build a life abroad while holding US citizenship. American citizenship has been converted from a pride and a privilege to a burden. These folks have power however. They have good, simple stories, and there are media outlets that are willing to tell those stories.
Morris, Robert (2013-11-22). FATCA and the New Birth of American Empire (Kindle Locations 21-27). . Kindle Edition.
@Calgary411
excellent movie..brutally well acted , but the Canadian saves the day!!!
I’ve read the Kindle version of “FATCA and the New Birth of American Empire”, via a Kindle App on an iPad. Brief, clear, forceful and very useful as it focusses on the effects on the Rest Of Humanity (ie beyond beleaguered USPs around the world). It would be wonderful if the publisher/author could get versions out there in Spanish, Portuguese, German, Italian, French, Hindi, Gujarati, Punjabi, Cantonese, Mandarin, Bahasa Indonesia, Yoruba, Igbo, Akan, Zulu, Xhosa, Swahili, Turkish, Arabic, Russian, Polish, Greek, Japanese, Korean, and dozens of other languages. The NON-English speaking world needs a chance to learn something of what FATCA will mean before they are hit by it.
KingOfTheRoad,
Your absolutely correct that the NON-English speaking world needs a chance to learn something of what FATCA will mean before they are hit by it!! I guess we are very lucky to be so much further ahead in that we speak the language of the US FATCA. It is mind-boggling that these non-English speaking countries must translate to learn of all the FATCA evil to hit their families.
@Calgary411,
It is too bad we don’t have any Quebec Brockers who might spread the message there! A French version of the FACT sheet might be helpful, if we knew someone who could translate.
WhiteKat,
I’ve just sent a copy of the FATCA Fact Sheet to a translation business here. If the cost is not too much, I will cover that to get it done — if others can somehow have it distributed in Quebec. It would also, then, be posted here — and at Maple Sandbox.
@Calgary 411.
I can contribute.
@King of the Road,
excellent suggestion
Thanks, northernstar. It shouldn’t be much so I likely can handle. Do you know anyone in Quebec or how a French version of the FATCA Fact Sheet could be distributed there — or perhaps just by link to Isaac Brock and downloading / printing would work best?
Victoria would offer a reasonable translation price to France French.
@ Calgary411
I don’t know anyone who speaks french.
If the above is a myth, then the below is not a myth:
Are you trying to scare us? It won’t work. We are beyond that now.
Perhaps if the IRS wasn’t so consumed with launching yet another great American boondoggle, I might hear back from the IRS!
@WhiteKat: I never thought Tara was trying to scare us, so if that was the intent, it clearly didn’t work.
I thought of it as more satire. “We’re only human after all.” Really? How can anyone who is trying to financially terrorize millions of honest people of all ages around the world claim to be human?
The “satire” video was far more honest, realistic and informative than the one with IRS Chief Counsel’s lawyer could even pretend to be. Human? More like FATCA Robot.
And US Treasury has the audacity to call us tax cheats and myths hiding illicit activities in our legal bank accounts where we live, work, earn an income, own homes, save and pay taxes.
The real criminals are those trying to steal from our savings for our children’s education and disabilities, our retirement and our country’s economy.
Well, we know what AML stands for, and KYC. I’m guessing that Tara is operating under the IRS’s KYE (Know Your Enemy) policy. But wow, her ears are gonna burn big time. Hope it doesn’t keep her awake. Wonder when she stumbled on to IBS, and I wonder if she had to seek permission (from Geithner?) to jump into the fray. I hope she points the boss to the “We are not myths” site — who knows maybe Geithner will be so PO’d at that he’ll fire the communications specialist who recommended it. Help us out here, Tara.
Unless, of course, @Tara isn’t who we think she is.
Why would Tara need to bother when all she needs to do is to call up the NSA.
I’m beginning to think Tara isn’t THAT Tara. In fact, I suspect Tara may very well be a troll–and likely one we’ve heard from before under other names here, on Twitter and elsewhere. Too bad. I would enjoy a debate with THAT Tara.
You mean Tara could really be Tara Bull? I thought that maybe the real Tara took exception for being depicted the way she was in our IRS video.
39:21 in the video, the question is if they are required to report someone under the 50k reporting limit. She goes back and forth, but ends up saying that if the bank has already determined it to be a US person (by other means), then that person must be reported (the 50k minimus doesn’t apply. It implies that the 50k minimus applies to what must be searched. It implies that what must be reported is what is known, without a minimum level).
It isn’t that Tara. Her bosses would not approve of her posting or baiting as it works to their disadvantage. There is nothing in it for them. They already have thousands of CPA and Attorneys in the FATCA Compliance Complex (to say nothing about BIG spend and tax governments)that are carrying their water and effectively spreading the message, “You Must Comply,” We might be an annoyance, but I doubt they see a few FATCA contrarians as a real threat. If they do, they flatter us with the attention. They are better placed remaining silent and hope all this gets cemented into place before the masses are aware…
just spent some time this afternoon searching the net about FATCA and am certainly feeling empowered by the seemingly ground swell of anti FATCA voices out there.
i am very thankful to the IBS’ers that have been in the fight since the beginning.
i had absoutly zero idea of just what a mess is going on reguarding “american persons” i guess ingnorance is bliss. i just assumed……which i know is my fault but who would have thought it could go this far sideways…….
i am sure my answer of willfully ignoring any and all requirements of me filing any type of information is the easy way out but like i have said in other recent posts i am comfortable with my decision not to ever cross the border into the usa as i have no reason to go there other than to vacation and there is a whole world out there that i will happily spend my vacation dollars in rather than in america.
thank you IBS for being here and i will do my part in getting the word out about how bad FATCA really is for all Canadians
thank you again and again……
I only got to the point where the Terra brings up the correcting of the 544 pages of FFI regulations … that mistakes can happen and they are only human after all. Sorry but my stomach couldn’t take anything past that hypocritical bolus of baloney. How #$%^%$#$%$#ing forgiving they are of their own errors and how #$%^%$#$%$#ing UNforgiving they are of grannies living in far away lands who never even knew they were deemed by the high and almighty IRS to be “US persons for tax [extortion] purposes”!!!!! Oops I’m using my angry fingers to type right now … better switch to simply my middle ones. 🙁
re: Morris, Robert (2013-11-22). FATCA and the New Birth of American Empire (Kindle Locations 21-27). . Kindle Edition.
I told you how “FATCA and the New Birth of American Empire” starts — this is how it ends:
We should consider how far we have come. “Taxation without representation is tyranny!” was the rallying cry of the American Revolution. We fought for the idea that a people should be free to govern itself autonomously. If decisions were made about a country’s future they should be made by representatives of that people. We claimed that these truths were self-evident. Despite decades of overwhelming power, we have tried to hold on to this idea. Our many failures have been well documented. But the principle has remained, and still motivates some of us. With FATCA we appear to have abandoned the principle altogether. The few billion dollars that FATCA may yield are poor payment for the death of that idea.
The United States, like the Athenians, has defeated the enemies that caused the free world to rally to its standard. Nonetheless, we continue to consolidate power. We use our riches, and our military to keep people in line. Athens ended up starting a war through its arrogance, lost that war miserably, and fell into thousands of years of obscurity. We will not start a war with FATCA, but it is a step in the wrong direction. I have written elsewhere about how we only have a few more precious decades on top. We must use this time wisely. FATCA is not wise.
Thanks again, osgood. A lot here would read with interest — and a sick stomach!
TARA FATCA video views…. 234
The Real FATCA ‘truth in satire” video views… 2,376
10 to 1 lead.
(was ~34 when I first saw it.)
So, whose video is most mythical or most relevant? I can certainly tell you whose video is resonating more…
I’ve just ordered the Kindle version of “FATCA and the New Birth of American Empire” at amazon.ca (to be delivered to my Kindle for PC) and as a bonus I saw and purchased Kindle version of “Twelve Years a Slave” for CAD1.99 as I haven’t seen the movie yet (recommended by USCitizenAbroad). Thanks once again, osgood!
Starts out:
Morris, Robert (2013-11-22). FATCA and the New Birth of American Empire (Kindle Locations 21-27). . Kindle Edition.
@Calgary411
excellent movie..brutally well acted , but the Canadian saves the day!!!
I’ve read the Kindle version of “FATCA and the New Birth of American Empire”, via a Kindle App on an iPad. Brief, clear, forceful and very useful as it focusses on the effects on the Rest Of Humanity (ie beyond beleaguered USPs around the world). It would be wonderful if the publisher/author could get versions out there in Spanish, Portuguese, German, Italian, French, Hindi, Gujarati, Punjabi, Cantonese, Mandarin, Bahasa Indonesia, Yoruba, Igbo, Akan, Zulu, Xhosa, Swahili, Turkish, Arabic, Russian, Polish, Greek, Japanese, Korean, and dozens of other languages. The NON-English speaking world needs a chance to learn something of what FATCA will mean before they are hit by it.
KingOfTheRoad,
Your absolutely correct that the NON-English speaking world needs a chance to learn something of what FATCA will mean before they are hit by it!! I guess we are very lucky to be so much further ahead in that we speak the language of the US FATCA. It is mind-boggling that these non-English speaking countries must translate to learn of all the FATCA evil to hit their families.
@Calgary411,
It is too bad we don’t have any Quebec Brockers who might spread the message there! A French version of the FACT sheet might be helpful, if we knew someone who could translate.
WhiteKat,
I’ve just sent a copy of the FATCA Fact Sheet to a translation business here. If the cost is not too much, I will cover that to get it done — if others can somehow have it distributed in Quebec. It would also, then, be posted here — and at Maple Sandbox.
@Calgary 411.
I can contribute.
@King of the Road,
excellent suggestion
Thanks, northernstar. It shouldn’t be much so I likely can handle. Do you know anyone in Quebec or how a French version of the FATCA Fact Sheet could be distributed there — or perhaps just by link to Isaac Brock and downloading / printing would work best?
Victoria would offer a reasonable translation price to France French.
@ Calgary411
I don’t know anyone who speaks french.
If the above is a myth, then the below is not a myth:
http://youtu.be/HMqGRip5bWk
OMG! @Tara Are you THAT Tara?!?
@Tara,
Are you trying to scare us? It won’t work. We are beyond that now.
Perhaps if the IRS wasn’t so consumed with launching yet another great American boondoggle, I might hear back from the IRS!
@WhiteKat: I never thought Tara was trying to scare us, so if that was the intent, it clearly didn’t work.
I thought of it as more satire. “We’re only human after all.” Really? How can anyone who is trying to financially terrorize millions of honest people of all ages around the world claim to be human?
The “satire” video was far more honest, realistic and informative than the one with IRS Chief Counsel’s lawyer could even pretend to be. Human? More like FATCA Robot.
And US Treasury has the audacity to call us tax cheats and myths hiding illicit activities in our legal bank accounts where we live, work, earn an income, own homes, save and pay taxes.
The real criminals are those trying to steal from our savings for our children’s education and disabilities, our retirement and our country’s economy.
Well, we know what AML stands for, and KYC. I’m guessing that Tara is operating under the IRS’s KYE (Know Your Enemy) policy. But wow, her ears are gonna burn big time. Hope it doesn’t keep her awake. Wonder when she stumbled on to IBS, and I wonder if she had to seek permission (from Geithner?) to jump into the fray. I hope she points the boss to the “We are not myths” site — who knows maybe Geithner will be so PO’d at that he’ll fire the communications specialist who recommended it. Help us out here, Tara.
Unless, of course, @Tara isn’t who we think she is.
Why would Tara need to bother when all she needs to do is to call up the NSA.
I’m beginning to think Tara isn’t THAT Tara. In fact, I suspect Tara may very well be a troll–and likely one we’ve heard from before under other names here, on Twitter and elsewhere. Too bad. I would enjoy a debate with THAT Tara.
You mean Tara could really be Tara Bull? I thought that maybe the real Tara took exception for being depicted the way she was in our IRS video.
39:21 in the video, the question is if they are required to report someone under the 50k reporting limit. She goes back and forth, but ends up saying that if the bank has already determined it to be a US person (by other means), then that person must be reported (the 50k minimus doesn’t apply. It implies that the 50k minimus applies to what must be searched. It implies that what must be reported is what is known, without a minimum level).
It isn’t that Tara. Her bosses would not approve of her posting or baiting as it works to their disadvantage. There is nothing in it for them. They already have thousands of CPA and Attorneys in the FATCA Compliance Complex (to say nothing about BIG spend and tax governments)that are carrying their water and effectively spreading the message, “You Must Comply,” We might be an annoyance, but I doubt they see a few FATCA contrarians as a real threat. If they do, they flatter us with the attention. They are better placed remaining silent and hope all this gets cemented into place before the masses are aware…
just spent some time this afternoon searching the net about FATCA and am certainly feeling empowered by the seemingly ground swell of anti FATCA voices out there.
i am very thankful to the IBS’ers that have been in the fight since the beginning.
i had absoutly zero idea of just what a mess is going on reguarding “american persons” i guess ingnorance is bliss. i just assumed……which i know is my fault but who would have thought it could go this far sideways…….
i am sure my answer of willfully ignoring any and all requirements of me filing any type of information is the easy way out but like i have said in other recent posts i am comfortable with my decision not to ever cross the border into the usa as i have no reason to go there other than to vacation and there is a whole world out there that i will happily spend my vacation dollars in rather than in america.
thank you IBS for being here and i will do my part in getting the word out about how bad FATCA really is for all Canadians
thank you again and again……
I only got to the point where the Terra brings up the correcting of the 544 pages of FFI regulations … that mistakes can happen and they are only human after all. Sorry but my stomach couldn’t take anything past that hypocritical bolus of baloney. How #$%^%$#$%$#ing forgiving they are of their own errors and how #$%^%$#$%$#ing UNforgiving they are of grannies living in far away lands who never even knew they were deemed by the high and almighty IRS to be “US persons for tax [extortion] purposes”!!!!! Oops I’m using my angry fingers to type right now … better switch to simply my middle ones. 🙁
re: Morris, Robert (2013-11-22). FATCA and the New Birth of American Empire (Kindle Locations 21-27). . Kindle Edition.
I told you how “FATCA and the New Birth of American Empire” starts — this is how it ends:
Thanks again, osgood. A lot here would read with interest — and a sick stomach!
TARA FATCA video views…. 234
The Real FATCA ‘truth in satire” video views… 2,376
10 to 1 lead.
(was ~34 when I first saw it.)
So, whose video is most mythical or most relevant? I can certainly tell you whose video is resonating more…