@Mopsicktaxlaw Liked ur post http://t.co/zX4dOZ9HWe #FATCA #FBAR r the expression of a tyrannical gov. U know FBAR was never related to tax
— U.S. Citizen Abroad (@USCitizenAbroad) February 14, 2014
@Mopsicktaxlaw "When people fear the gov there is tyranny, when gov fears the people there is liberty" What's happening in America today?
— U.S. Citizen Abroad (@USCitizenAbroad) February 14, 2014
I am a fan of Mr. Mospick and his blog. Mr. Mopsick has done much to reveal the injustice of citizenship-based taxation. He has publicly stated his opposition to “citizenship-based taxation”. For this he deserves credit. His latest post, although ostensibly about FATCA, reveals much more. He confirms the erosion of privacy and the “one world” agenda of FATCA.
What I find most interesting is this paragraph:
Here is my response: It is true that the creation of a virtual international banking and financial data base is inevitable as an integral part of FATCA, but there is also an element of great sadness when you consider that FATCA, FBAR’s, and the disclosure of foreign financial assets on Form 8938 represent a failure of our traditional reliance on the concept of self-reporting our taxable events to the government. In a “government by the people” which draws its legitimacy from the consent of the governed, there is a basic assumption that an enlightened and informed citizenry can be trusted to fully disclose their tax matters to the government. FATCA is basically an announcement that the self-reporting model is a joke and that people cannot be trusted to honestly pay their fair share. FATCA, FBAR’s, and Form 8938 basically say “you tell us what you have overseas, even if there were no taxable events during the year, and we will let you know if we need to have a chat.”
FATCA and FBAR have nothing whatsoever to do with tax. Tax may be the pretext, but it’s not the reality.
Would be interesting to get your comments on this. He may still be reading this blog.
“you tell us what you have overseas, even if there were no taxable events during the year, and we will let you know if we need to have a chat.”
Sounds like they want to know if someone is planning to expatriate in the future. That’s one fear filled and paranoid government …
On the other hand I’ve read of wealthy people who have purchased large pieces of land in Canada a few hundred miles from the US border for when they might need to escape to a civilized society due to social unrest in the US caused by the Great Recession and general unhappiness down there.
I think there are so many things going on in the US that have a media blackout. Only the government (and maybe the truly wealthy) know the truth about what’s happening.
The biggest flaw in his argument is the US itself being unable to provide reciprocity. As a senior IRS official onel put it the due diligence standards for US banks “Are what they are.”
While many Brockers probably can’t remember it today on February 14, 2014 from the standpoint of a US Person living the US and opening a US bank account things aren’t done a whole lot different than they are in Canada and come July 1 2014 that is not expected to change.
@ Tim. When you consider the fundamental difference between Canada’s residence based taxation and the US with its citizenship based taxation, the notion of reciprocity becomes pretty much a moot point anyway.
The financial affairs of a Canadian citizen resident in the US are of no interest to the CRA because that person is no longer taxable in Canada.
The US income of a Canadian resident is of interest to the CRA, but because for normal sorts of investments US tax has already been withheld at source, that person will likely disclose it to the CRA so they can claim the Foreign Tax Credit on their Canadian return.
So the only sort of US income the CRA would really be interested in would be US trusts and other convoluted arrangements that wealthy Canadian residents might use to hide both their income and their beneficial ownership. Those sorts of structures are by design intended to be invisible to both governments and as such will never be exposed by reciprocity.
While we are arguing and rightly so over FATCA intrusion there is much more at stake than FATCA for all of us.
http://www.infowars.com/government-lays-groundwork-to-confiscate-your-401k-and-ira-this-is-happening/
http://www.thenewamerican.com/economy/item/17337-globalists-exploit-new-u-s-tax-law-for-world-taxation-regime?tmpl=component&print=1
It is all intended to extract every last cent of wealth in the entire world, including the US and Canada ( who ARE both members of the G-20)
and if you do not comply harsh and I MEAN harsh penalties will be levied against individuals and businesses NO matter citizenship or borders.
Let us not be deluded into thinking the US will not allow this. OBAMA is allowing this , sent his henchman over to France to work with the OECD to implement GATCA by September. Obama is working AGAINST Congress and the American people and if something is not done WE are done.
This is quite a markable turn of heart. Someone has been doing some soul searching.
Still, as a 30-year vet of the IRS and as an American Homelander, Mopsick still seems to lack the real sense of empathy regarding the fear that people experience vis-a-vis his former employer. “Let’s have a chat … ” are words uttered to suggest the benign nature of an audit, but some will be driven commit suicide when they hear such words from the IRS.
Better than world-wide compliance is to let the ideology of big government, of which Mopsick is a believer, just to die a natural death. People should turn back to their traditional religion and believe in the gods of their fathers. Government as God has now proven itself completely untenable. Government as Satan however is perfectly believable: “For we are not contending against flesh and blood, but against the principalities, against the powers, against the world rulers of this present darkness, against the spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places” (Eph 6:12).
The NTA in her report to Congress went on and on about how the concept of voluntary compliance is being undermined by the actions of lawmakers.
Big Brother will determine whether we’re good citizens or not.
I get increasingly more libertarian with every passing day…
An omniscient government is not a good thing. Even more so when the government doesn’t play by the rules.
A Brady disclosure requires the prosecution to disclose evidence or information that would prove the innocence of the defendant or would enable the defense to more effectively impeach the credibility of government witnesses. Evidence that would serve to reduce the defendant’s sentence must also be disclosed by the prosecution (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brady_disclosure)
There’s an interesting NY Times editorial which highlights the issue of rampant prosecutorial misconduct. (http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/05/opinion/sunday/rampant-prosecutorial-misconduct.html?_r=0). “According to the National Registry of Exonerations, 43 percent of wrongful convictions are the result of official misconduct.”
Here’s a novel idea, have the number of votes you get determined by how much tax you pay:
Billionaire suggests rich should get more votes
http://www.msnbc.com/politicsnation/billionaire-rich-should-get-more-votes
@bubblebustin, some expats would then have more votes than homelanders.
“In a “government by the people” which draws its legitimacy from the consent of the governed, there is a basic assumption that an enlightened and informed citizenry can be trusted to fully disclose their tax matters to the government. FATCA is basically an announcement that the self-reporting model is a joke and that people cannot be trusted to honestly pay their fair share.”
Really? I draw a different conclusion. FATCA looks to me like an announcement that the government no longer enjoys the consent of the governed, and must now use blackmail, threats and coercion in place of legitimacy.
we know now that the 51% popularity contest has nothing to do with fair treatment of individuals. A popularity contest and media campaign and propaganda campaign will not address fairness.
I know this isn’t part of the thread, but Simon Cowell makes big mistake having his child born in NY.
http://www.mirror.co.uk/3am/celebrity-news/lauren-silverman-pregnant-simon-cowell-3146714#comments
The kid is guaranteed to be a FATCA slave. He would’ve been wiser to have the kid born outside of the US – perhaps Canada?
Yes we ARE “done” UNLESS YOU HAVE GOLD IN HAND …..UP 25.00 AN OUNCE TODAY!!!!!
@ChearsBigEars:
You are absolutely right about getting PMs as much as possible.
Stark comments from the article at the New American: To paraphrase:
Pascal Saint-Amans, director of the OECD Center for Tax Policy and Administration, who leads the group intend an automatic sharing of information and AEOI regime that includes various catagories of income, changes of address,purchase and sale of property and more!
Of course the scheme turns American traditions and constitutional protections upside down. Instead of being secure in one’s house, papers, and effects without a warrant and probable cause, governments and autocrats around the world would be free to rifle through citizens most sensitive information at will. Hackers, criminals ( as if THIS lot isn’t!)
and identity thieves, among others might also be able to access the data.
This plot to abolish financial privacy and national independence in tax policy will also be expensive. although the taxpayer-funded ( $100 million of US taxpayer money) bureaucrats at the OECD- whose salaries ARE NOT TAXED- do not seem to care! ( astonishing , what!?)
As Saint-Almans states: “This will cost something, but it is the price to pay to be FREE FROM SUSPICION OF COMPLICITY IN FISCAL FRAUD.
Got that? We are automatically ‘suspected of complicity in fiscal fraud’ if we fail to succumb to their demands.
I often wondered what all those ghost cities in China were all about.
If a Fema coffin doesn’t getcha you get hauled off to one of those ghost cities.
If US domestic taxpayers were required to file the same obnoxious disclosures year after year that expats have to live with, they’d be rioting in the streets. The only reason the USG can get away with this for expats is because expats have no Congressional representation.
And if I hear one more moron down there talk about “expats paying their fair share” I’ll puke. Those bums need to pay their own fair share; they’re the ones receiving the services.
@Tim I agree that reciprocity is a *big* flaw in the agreement. Without reciprocity what Canada signed onto is something that no self-respecting country would sign on to in the absence of economic sanctions. This point needs to be pressed and pressed and pressed. If Canada did not have an economic gun held to its head, there is no way such an obviously one-sided agreement would have been accepted.
The other big flaw IMO is that the IGA quite likely violates the Charter. This also needs to be pressed and pressed and pressed.
So, IMO when discussing FATCA with others, these should be the 2 main points. Talking about how duals are harmed by FATCA can be dismissed as “someone else’s problem”, or “you should have known about your tax responsibilities”. OTOH, these 2 points are everyone’s problem and are not refutable.
I disagree. This information would likely be useful for helping Canada to ensure that where applicable, either the Departure Tax was paid or the individual is filing Canadian tax returns.
Also, it’s not moot from a political point of view. How can the US tell every other country in the world to provide this information when the US won’t? Indeed, I believe US laws may actually prevent this. The fact that the US won’t provide it is an example of stunning hypocrisy and this needs to be highlighted as much as possible.
The US won’t take its own medicine and this needs to be understood by all.
While I admit I know next to nothing about Canada’s departure tax regime what I meant is that once they have left the system Canada does not chase its expats (citizens or residents) to the ends of the earth to try to extract tax from them. Is failure to file a departure tax return a significant problem for the the Canadian system? If so, the CRA can’t count on getting any help from the IRS or US banks.
The reciprocity carrot the US offers in these IGAs is nothing more than vague promises to kinda, sorta, maybe sometime look into it. The chance of them actually delivering on that promise is virtually zero. They don’t give a damn about assisting other countries tax authorities. They want to ensure a one way flow of funds into the US by forcing other countries to hunt down their “tax evading” US expats.
And yes, US hypocrisy knows no bounds. It doesn’t seem to bother them at all. These IGAs would never get signed in the first place if the US didn’t resort to extortionate threats.
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Protect yourselves from the banks
Barbados getting ready to show US the money
14 February 2014
Government will negotiate with the US to ensure that institutions like credit unions, pension funds, government entities and international institutions that present a low risk of US tax evasion are exempt from the provisions of FATCA under a special annex to the IGA
Barbados is moving steadily towards an Inter-Governmental Agreement (IGA) with the United States to give effect to the Foreign Account Compliance Act (FATCA).
03 February 2014 Minister of Industry Donville Inniss, Bank Secretary of the Central Bank Elson Gaskin and Commissioner of Inland Revenue, Sabina Walcott- Denny at a press conference highlighted the logistics of the initiative.
According to Gaskin, the timeline that the negotiation team has set for actually getting the IGA into place is April 30, 2014, while the deadline for signing is June 30. It was noted that Barbados will have at least until September 30, 2015 to ensure that all matters needed to operationalise FATCA, including the passage of legislation are in place.
The Bank secretary explained, “The threshold for bank accounts is USD 100 000 on an aggregate basis. On the July 1, 2014 you will be subject to FATCA reporting. Or if you have an insurance contract with a Cash Surrender Value of at least USD 500 000 you will also be subject to report. If you are under those thresholds those amounts don’t have to be reported,” he said.
http://www.intax-info.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=2058&catid=2:news&Itemid=32&lang=en
AGAIN: “Government (Barbados) will negotiate with the US to ensure that institutions like credit unions, pension funds, government entities and international institutions that present a low risk of US tax evasion are exempt from the provisions of FATCA under a special annex to the IGA”
Now what was that asshole from CARP saying about how much the US gave up to Canadians????
Bermuda:
Now this is hilarious:
“Now we have the OECD Exchange of Information Model Agreement that Bermuda will most likely sign up to, that will potentially have Bermuda signing over 50 IGA type agreements with potentially different FATCA requirements.”
Bermuda will go broke in 1 year in my opinion as will any number of island countries with small economies other than offshore investment. Business and investment is going to grind to a standstill
China pulls plug on their residents offshore accounts. There goes Vancouver’s investment underpinnings. This is HUGE news. I don’t think Canadians can ignore FATCA anymore once this hits the streets
“China has also announced a major shift in the governments stance on tax bu quietly introducing new laws demanding onshore residents declare their offshore bank accounts and investments”
@ChearsBigEars
@Bermuda
And so it begins.