Update on my previously buried comment from information I received from Terry McBride, Saskatoon, SK’s The StarPhoenix. I am moving this to its own post. There is input here from James Jatras, including the comment:
Repeal FATCA
This hits the nail right on the head. Now that the Republican Party has officially endorsed FATCA repeal, momentum is shifting. National governments should not sign IGAs and subject themselves to an American law that even the US Department of Justice admits has no legal authority over them, and can only be backed up with the threat of reprisal — the 30% sanction. Most of all, Mr. Green is right, institutions that stand to save a lot of money if FATCA is repealed have the ability to affect the outcome: “The prospect of FATCA’s repeal is quite realistic. If institutions help educate and inform the American public and Congress, there’s a good chance Fatca can be delayed and perhaps – I hope – eventually repealed.” If banks, credit union, pension funds, stock and hedge funds, spent a tiny fraction of the money they’d spend for FATCA compliance on securing its repeal, that goal is achievable.
We’ve also seen Allison Christians’ input to a letter to Justin Trudeau, Canadian Liberal Leader:
It is one thing for the USA to say to individuals across the planet: if you have status under our law you must follow all of our laws no matter where you are. It is another thing entirely for Canada as a nation to voluntarily, with no compensation except the conditional promise of removal of a threat of economic sanctions, assist the United States in globally rounding people up to force them to comply with its patently untenable and unjustifiable position. Such assistance fundamentally conflicts with a universally recognized (and far more just) jurisdictional claim based on actual residence, which Canada practices along with the rest of the world.
Down with FATCA!
Down with extraterritorialism!
Down with bullshit exceptionalism!
Down with tyrants!
Even the worm will turn when you tread on him.
Just spoke with one of the most respected US tax experts in Canada and he said many US Persons are hopping mad about filing electronically and he’s debating whether to file them for his clients at all. Also the Association of CPA’s in Canada is getting an earful and so even though some of us think some accountants stand to benefit, my feedback says they don’t want the extra work and are fed up with the IRS and the USA in general and says people are now renouncing in huge numbers compared with the 25 or so that did this 10 years ago.
I am NOT going to file electronically but continue filing by paper. Yes they have acct number etc already but let THEM be responsible for lost info by hacking (It WILL happen as it always does) but I’m not going to be responsible for info lost in transit to their computers. I will have them notarized for proof and make copies. If they send them back I’ll deal with it then. Maybe later in the year when Canada is in full rebellion over this and the US comes to its senses FATCA will be repealed and recorded in history as the stupidist law ever written.
If you are filing from outside the US the NSA will capture your FBAR filing. What can they do with it? I don’t know. But if you have done nothing wrong why worry about it. It is only to protect you.
@ChearsBigEars
Medea Fleecestealer found this:
“A filer who is unable to submit an FBAR electronically may contact the FinCEN Regulatory Helpline at 800-949-2732 to request an exemption from e-filing.”
My husband is going to try calling the “helpline” but they’ll probably tell him to take all his bank statements to a library or internet cafe. There are no US tax preparers in our town.
@ Worldwide
NSA doesn’t have to capture the info in the internets. FinCEN will share it I’m sure. That Utah NSA facility is a bottomless pit for data.
File electronically? CSEC uses wifi to track Canadian travellers
Any relevance?
But, who cares about privacy any more?
What’s that saying so often used here: “Just because you’re paranoid doesn’t mean they aren’t out to get you.”
Wow! Filing FBARs electronically…. That’s going to be real safe…..NOT!
And now, from the guys that brought you FATCA, the broken Obamacare healthcare system, Too Big to Fail, the illegal Iraq war, 47+ million people on food stamps, and the privacy violating PRISM that is the NSA’s big baby, here’s comes…..
Identity theft of US persons abroad!
Yes! Already persecuted and vilified by both the US government and its trained homelanders, and being given the shaft good and hard by unscrupulous tax accountants and FATCA compliance teams, we now get to be targeted by money hungry, opportunistic hackers, too! Yay!
Just imagine your accounts being cleaned out by hackers, just before the IRS comes to demand their fucking cut for all of the services that the US government doesn’t even provide for you! Oh joy!!
But wait! Thee’s more!
If you check off ‘married filing joint’ now, you can invite your Canadian wife’s accounts to be hacked by the same hackers, while she’s compelled to share her financial data to a foreign government! What a steal! As a matter of fact, it IS a steal!
But sure. We can trust THEM with our data. You know, the same bastards that also call us tax cheaters!!
Bullshit!!!
@mjh. Sounds like you are getting dangerously close to going over the edge. Namely: I’m mad as hell and I’m not going to take it any more!
Personally, I decided there was no way I would ever file one of those electronic FBARs into the cesspool of identity theft. What’s the point? The NSA already knows about everything anyway.
(By the way, it doesn’t matter what your filing status is; a joint account gets reported on your FBAR.)
@maz57
I’m simply calling it out for what it is: It’s absurd, and ridiculous. And just think, if the NSA knows everything, it’s because we’ve paid for it, whether we like it, or not. Whether we wanted it, or not. Whether it’s even good for us, or not. Meanwhile, it has already been made abundantly clear that, if someone dares point out these facts, then they may as well flee to Russia.
But more importantly, who wouldn’t be all pissed off at the concept of being constrained from living a normal life, simply because of living abroad?
It is otherwise just another reason for me to renounce out of many. If the homelanders what to accept that violation as the passive, pathetic sheep that they are, then as far as I care, they can go ahead and lose their souls.
And FYI. I have no joint accounts. Why should my wife be a victim in all of this?
@MJH, I’ve become compliant at great expense; I also missed out on the stock market gains these past two years because the compliant portfolio held a high percentage of bonds and fixed interest, plus very high charges. This whole fiasco when I count up double taxation, accounting fees, fees to my new financial advisor, time off from work due to stress, the exorbitant charges and poorly set-up portfolio has probably cost me close to $200,000. I also had to gift my spouse another $100,000, so I have been well and truly f**ked!
All I can think is that I will still get through this but life, of course, will never be the same. Money is not everything and I like my job, so working till 70 is not going to kill me; but had this whole fiasco not happened, I was on course to be able to retire at 55!! I will be so relieved when this is all over, hopefully by the early summer, when all my final paperwork and tax return will have been filed…it certainly has been a tough three years.
@ mjh. Please don’t misunderstand…I’m absolutely 100% with you!
1. It’s not only absurd and ridiculous, it’s pathetic and vindictive.
2. While fleeing to Russia was necessary for Snowden, he really pissed them off. For the rest of us, Canada should do nicely!
3. Yeah, not even being able to invest freely in my home of 40 years, is what drove me over the edge.
5. I still have a joint account but it’s become a non-issue because I don’t communicate with the bastards anymore. And yeah, our wives deserve this even less than we do.
@monalisa1776
I’m essentially starting all over again at 40, and with an obsolete education that prepped me for factory work that no longer exists. My family also has an inability to think outside of that box, because they managed to make their middle class lifestyle from it, and they don’t understand why anyone would even want to aspire for something different. Not to mention the fact that times have changed, and this is no longer the 1950’s. My experience in the US has shown that it is pointless to have dreams, as there exists also sorts of people that will line up to shoot your dreams down like others did to them. That certainly includes family as well.
Now, I’m my wife’s caregiver, but I want to go back to school and eventually work on computers for a living. I aspire to be happy in what I’m doing, and not necessarily be rich. I also wouldn’t mind taking some business courses and eventually start up a small computer shop, though my wife’s care needs may limit my time to grow such a business. Especially as she gets worse. Nevertheless, this is an opportunity for a new beginning, and it’s an opportunity that I want to take.
However, my US citizenship, and the obligations that come with it, only serves to stand in the way of my goal. Also, it’s not as though they’ve aspired me towards any meaningful life, let alone greatness, when I was there. Why should they benefit from the opportunities that I can get here, and from the work that I can do here?
Regarding maz57’s comment, if I was really dangerously close to going over the edge as he claims, why would I waste my time making snide jabs at idiotic US policies? I believe everyone here knows I’m basically anti-American, and I’m okay with that, but God forbid I offend some flag waving homelander aspirant, or parasitic Yankee envy specialist that is probably temporarily overseas on assignment, and doesn’t understand the complex issues that we have to deal with. I might then have to endure such mindless banality as, “Why do they hate us? Why do they hate America?’
Hate? Really? More like ambivalent. I don’t care about their problems, and I’m sure the feeling is mutual. However, they certainly like to cause serious, and totally unnecessary problems for others, and for that, they deserve to be ridiculed for it. They’re not exceptional, and they’re not God’s chosen people. Why should they be treated otherwise? What matter of delusion gives them the right to impose their extraterritorial will over the rest of the planet?
The end of the US dollar as the world’s reserve currency really can’t come soon enough. Maybe at that point, they will finally learn the value of taking care of their own.
@maz57
Fair enough, because for all I knew, I could’ve been talking to a homelander. So if I come on strong, I apologize.
Check the latest Orwellian update to this article this post refers to. US Treasury responded, (and apparently demanded to cut in on the argument) by referring to its Mythis about FATCA link!!!!!!
Stack O’ Lie’s is on a roll!
@ Mark Twain
Which article? Which post?
I’ve learned that it’s a jungle out there. I feel increasingly philosophical about it all…I should have used an accountant and financial planner from the start to have avoided this huge mess I’d inadvertently created….Going forward, I’ve decided to play it safe by sticking with my advisor because at least my investments will be reasonably well looked after. I won’t ever be rich but should still be able to enjoy a decent retirement if I work till 70, which is just another 21 years away! I’ve had a health DNA test done, and have learned that I have fortunately inherited many longevity genes. So life is looking brighter in spite of my set-backs.
Em,
Article in this post at link below “here”:
Update on my previously buried comment from information I received from Terry McBride, Saskatoon, SK’s The StarPhoenix. I am moving this to its own post. There is input here from James Jatras, including the comment:
Okay, I think I’ve got it. I found the James Jatras comment here:
http://www.ibtimes.com/fatca-tax-evasion-crackdown-devere-ceo-backs-repeal-qa-1551611
There are a whole bunch of blurry pictures before you get to the Q&A part when opened in Camino but all is well in Safari. Keeping up is not easy sometimes.
BTW the IBS URL for this thread has no wordage to identify it. Only date and the number 25361.
I noticed that: I don’t know how to fix it!! I had a lot of trouble making that post, that being one of them. I need to be more computer (or WordPress) literate.
@ calgary411
I’m not computer literate at all. If our computer broke and my husband wasn’t around to fix it I would disappear into a black hole in the ethernet forever. I know Camino is on its way out but I still use it for other advantages it has over Safari. Too many changes, way too fast, for me.
Computers…..love them! I was glued to a TRS-80 back when I was in Grade 2. I even learned some BASIC on that thing, which no doubt I’ve long since forgotten.
When I’m tired of playing around with the toy that is Windows, I like to dabble around with FreeBSD for a challenge. If only I knew how to program, though…. Linux? Well, it’s not quite for me. ;^)
Unfortunately, I know very little about OSX, My only Apple experience was playing around with the Apple II, long before the iPhone came out. But from what I understand, OSX is in large part BSD based under the hood.
Now I’ve digressed waaaay too much. Time I got back on topic!
@ mjh49783
You young thing! I was just transitioning from pencil & printing to pen & writing in Grade 2. I didn’t even know TV had even been invented because I didn’t see one until Grade 6. I am so old.