Greetings to all,
We really got motivated by the Toronto meeting last Saturday (January 25) and are expanding our resoures to include our own Meetup Group.
Please join and it would probably be helpful to keep your same handle/moniker etc.
This is a good opportunity to help us get the word out to more and more of those who are stuck, or still don’t even know what is happening.
Thanks,
Tricia/nobledreamer
http://www.meetup.com/American-Expats-Abroad/events/162765622/
This might be a good group to start talking to lawyers about a class action suit too?
Swiss news just shared a case- some american with an account in Switzerland went to court and won. Because it is still anchored in swiss law that banks have to keep secrets. ( Another lost because it seems he was somehow “too late”. I dont know what that means.)
@ Polly
Good suggestion. I believe Blaze has some lawyers willing to help “when the time comes”. We do need to at least wait for an IGA announcement. Even if an IGA is not signed there will be banks that are so deserving of our legal challenges when they attempt to FATCA us on their own. Personally I would rather go to a how to fight FATCA and CBT meeting rather than a how to comply with FATCA and CBT meeting.
On the class action suit, count me in even though I live in Europe
@Em
You have the impression that the meeting Saturday was about compliance? If so, I did not do the notes right because it was anything but………..
@ Tricia
Your notes were great but yeah I kinda did. I sensed there was a good discussion about the unfairness of CBT and FATCA but overall it seemed like this is what the system is and these are some strategies to extricate yourself according the rule of US law. I’ll reread to see if I misunderstood. I just think people are doing a lot of bending to accommodate the USA because the threat to their well-being is significant but I dearly want to see the USA forced to do some bending to undo the stress it has put upon people who do not deserve to be lumped into the same blob as homelanders who stashed their wealth “overseas”.
That’s “undo” not “undue”. Not getting enough sleep these days. 🙁
I am currently escaping the polar vortex for a couple of months, but am following the posts and articles. I would be happy to lend any assistance to launch a class action suit. I have also forwarded the most recent article about NZ’s caving in to assorted family and friends; plan on rallying the troops when there. Keep up the great fight. I knew there was a reason that I chose to live and raise a family in Canada.
Tangogirl
Welcome Tangogirl, I do not know where you are located but, I hope you’ll consider attending one of the information sessions. Aside from the information and support it is an excellent way to network with others just now having their “OMG moment”
It’s going to take a lot of effort to continue to fight this. There are seven million expats all over the world and all of us have families inside and outside the U.S. Mobilizing these people spread all over the world is a very hard task but, here in Canada things have been gaining lots of momentum. Glad to have you join the fight against FATCA.
A brilliant idea — that came from the Toronto information session and perhaps an “undue” sort of censorship from advertising on a similar Toronto advertising site?
Em, the first Toronto session dealt with THE PROBLEM OF compliance. As, Trish, said — anything but talking about how to come into compliance in many / most of the cases and the many different ways people find themselves with this absurdity of EXTRA-TERRITORIAL US citizenship-taxation law, combined with FATCA coming into other countries of the world. Also discussed were the times it would make sense to do so.
Welcome to Isaac Brock, Tangogirl.
We’ve made great progress of awareness in the past few weeks; we must keep up this fight!
This is a great idea, Tricia, everyone. Everything that helps to get the word out!
@Em
I think there is a perspective that cannot be gained from the notes. First is, the focus of this meeting is a starting point for those who are just starting out on this journey. They are in their OMG moment. I don’t think they will gain anything until they are able to learn all that is involved. That said, there are many things that just don’t make it into the notes. I cannot convey how many times (it became an ongoing joke) it was said, “Don’t enter the OVDP, call us first!” After all, the “V” in OVDP stands for Voluntary! There is only so much that makes it outside any conversation, group or otherwise. FWIW, I had not intended to write any notes, so I started to add only the things that were new to me or had a different effect on me and then I started trying to write everything and it turned out that they just weren’t very complete.
I shall leave it to others to organize the sort of meeting regarding class action suits and so on. I have enough on my plate already! 🙂
Thanks Atticus for the welcome into the fold. We currently reside 30 minutes out of Ottawa on the Quebec side. I am hoping that information sessions will eventually make it out to the capital. Should it happen while I am downunder, I will ask my daughter to attend on my behalf. For now I will continue my education through this wonderful website and all the passionate advocates.
Best,
Tangogirl
Hi – just read the IBS Open Letter to Cdn Bankers Assn RE FATCA (Nov 2013) http://isaacbrocksociety.ca/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/FATCA-CBA-Letter-Posting.pdf
and wanted to send kudos to everyone who was involved in putting together that masterpiece.
Thanks, thanks, thanks for all your efforts, your articulate logic and knowledge of the legalities and risks involved – – and for sharing it all with us.
Hugs and 100 baskets of pure Florida cyber-sunshine from this (currently) snowbird…..