FATCA and GATCA implementation and its costs are primarily where the large percentage of the population puts their money: In low-bearing standard savings and checking accounts.
(Yes, it also controls investments and insurance industries which may hold larger asset values, but certainly the largest quantity of control is where the largest quantity of persons have accounts. (FATCA and GATCA costs are not greaer for the account that is $999,999 versus the account that is $50,000.00 . And the small quantity of $1+ million accounts is also irrelevant)
So, what is this revenue that FATCA and GATCA are chasing after? I mean, the FATCA programs that cost $18 to $40 per capita to implement.
Are they so broke that they need the taxes on all the bank accounts of the world that are yielding less than 0,25% interest?
What should we think–knowing that these accounts are all (82%), in high-tax countries, and are all (according to tax treaty) due tax only to the country where they reside?
(Sure, there is some money to be skimmed from investment accounts where a smaller quantity of people are currently making some money. But the quantity of these accounts and the percentage of FATCA/GATCA implementation costs for investment accounts is much lower).
Why are King David’s controllers controlling a huge population that isn’t making any money?
Do they want this money to repatriate itself, so that Merca can tax it at the typical 0.02% interest being gained at US savings institutions?
What about those large investors that actually have negative interest? Does FATCA and GATCA want the proceeds from that too?
How many trillions of lost tax money must be needed to get the $870 million when FATCA’s profit is only 0.02% ?
Envy knows no bounds.
Just asking. It’s Sunday morning,
Their need to collect is because they waste most of what they do collect.
Collections are the tertiary issue.
Number one, is obtaining ever more political power.
Number two, is looking good for the constituents giving the appearance that they are going after those “fat cats” avoiding taxes with the money overseas.
And finally, number 3 is actual revenue. If they get some they will be happy. If not, the top two reasons are plenty for them to initiate this horrible law.
Steross – clearly appearances count for a LOT….go after those ‘tax cheats’! Repeal FATCA? Oh, no, that would imply we condone tax evasion. This is why nothing re FATCA is moving in Congress and why the only option is a lawsuit at this time.
Some thoughts:
* When they brought in FATCA, citizens overseas were a secondary consideration. There were; however, many resident U.S. citizens, particularly immigrants like South Koreans, who were moving money back to the old country to take advantage of much higher interest rates there because quantitative easing meant that returns on savings weren’t keeping up with investment. By making it difficult for such people to have overseas accounts, the U.S.could shore up its current account balance. In a poor city near where my parents live, sending money to the Caribbean used to be a service that every bodega provided, but that all ended by last summer..
* If you have someone’s bank account data, you can see if they have sold their house or won a large sum on the lottery recently, events that may not be taxable abroad.
* Even if most people will owe nothing, there are some incredibly rich people who have been playing games. For example, there is one U.S. citizen in Britain who gets out of U.K. taxes on his offshore holdings by saying he is a U.S.-domicilied taxpayer, but he has reportedly in the past had a friend in Monaco keep his millions for him, something that the IRS has prosecuted Americans resident in the U.S. for. At one point, at a time when the U.S. was starting to criticize his Swiss bank for weak protections against money-laundering, he moved millions of U.S. dollars worth of Swiss francs out of it in a suitcase to another Swiss bank.
* The U.S. isn’t bearing the compliance costs. The compliance costs weaken the foreign competition and help U.S. banks, accounting professionals, and investment firms by forcing U.S. people back to U.S. financial products as much as possible. It may not be the tax raised as much as shoring up the value of the dollar that is the issue.
* It seems to crack down on tax evasion while diverting attention from the measures that the wealthy U.S. residents use, such as perpetual trusts and Delaware shell corporations, to a group of outsiders everyone assumes are rich.
The real question that needs to be asked is what else can be calculated from FATCA data?
Total debits and credits tell you more than you’d imagine.
A year with big credits? Possible capital gains sales
The amount of credits? Someone’s income
No debits? They must have another bank account somewhere else
The amount of interest paid is only the beginning.
Also what’s stopping the US changing the FATCA data set in future to include more and more detailed data with complete transactional data? Suddenly the IRS will know your employer, where you shop, the bills you pay, your investments, etc etc. And the IRS can do it given present IGA arrangements. All they have to do is say this is the ‘change,’ the banks will then fall over themselves trying to comply, and the Canadian government will sit there in silence.
All this provides the IRS with a pretty good ‘prospect’ list to investigate people.
That’s why this legal challenge must succeed. The US has no right to Canadian assets.
Blaze put it in a nutshell: FATCA = Foreign Attack To Control All
The real taxable income is not on the 1099, but the W-2 — at least for average joes.
As far as I can tell, this is the biggest loop hole in the entire system.
If the IRS/Congress/Democrats really want to ensure things are done correctly, then all Foreign Domiciled Employers (FDE), equivalent to FFIs, need to be brought on board to issue W-2s!
I think the real intent of FATCA and GATCA is to control assets and hence the people who own these assets (or think they do). The first step is to identify the assets — amounts and locations. The CRS is merely a mechanism to make it easier to build the ginormous, worldwide database. Continuity in the reporting system is a key requirement. The last step and I believe the ultimate goal is confiscation, either in total or in part by means of asset taxes. Debt slavery then becomes universal. Of course they will have your mattress covered too when they criminalize the use of all physical currency and force all transfers to be electronic. (There’s a devious reason why even in the heart of Africa people are being “encouraged” to get cell phones so they can participate in online banking.) This may sound far-fetched but think of what is happening right now that you would never have believed possible only a few years ago.
Well, there is always bitcoin. You can even store your bitcoin in your mind (it’s called a brain wallet). At this very moment I could liquidate all assets and convert it to bitcoin, then store that in my mind. The only way to gain access to my bitcoin would I suppose be torture. However they would never even know I had bitcoin stored in my mind to begin with. Currently you can buy anything with bitcoin and eventually it will be the dominant global currency.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/moneybuilder/2012/05/24/bank-error-in-your-favor/
You know the most innocent mistakes happen – and unfortunately this could potentially put you on the FATCA radar if you are not careful. “Bank Error in your favor.” Let’s say that you wake up one morning with $15,000 in your bank account more than what you should have. You know that its a mistake and that the bank needs to correct this. But what happens to your bank account. It’s now over $10,000 – the base limit that you have to file an FBAR for. You’re an American-Foreign country dual – you just got on the FATCA radar, my friend. To the bank it may be an innocent mistake on their part, but the ramifications to your bank account could be devastating.
The IRS won’t consider it a mistake and they’ll hit you for taxes and you’ll have to also file FBARs for the fact that an amount over $50,000 was in your account and if you fail to do so a fine of either $100,000 or 50% of the balance (whichever is the greater) will impact your bank account. At this point you would have to sue the bank for the damage to your finances for “THEIR” mistake.
Don’t forget that one could move $5000 from one account to another and boom aggregate $10k
Of course in the end it’s about control. That’s why they won’t give up FATCA any time soon.
Mark, I’m not talking about moving around your own money. I’m talking about the bank making a mistake and putting you right in the cross-hairs.
Correct. 2 different methods of becoming an FBAR filer or reported FATCA person.
However in one case, you create the problem yourself (by moving your money around into an aggregate account) whereas the “windfall” bank error puts you in the crosshairs by their misstep – not yours.