http://www.repealfatca.com/index.asp?idmenu=4&idsubmenu=156&title=repealfatcacom-alert
Stop ‘Backdoor’ Authority for FATCA and OECD Reciprocity!
This is a RepealFATCA.com Alert! Contact your Representative NOW and tell him or her that the House of Representatives must —
- NOT accept Sec. 603 of the Senate-passed version of H.R. 1295 (“Trade Preferences Extension Act”) and
- MUST insist that the Senate recede to the House and DROP Sec. 603 in Conference.
As described in a letter in opposition to Sec. 603 from the financial industry, the Senate language would “change current law to require banks, credit unions and broker/dealers to report to the Internal Revenue Service and our customers on all interest bearing as well as non-interest bearing accounts.”
Even more dangerously, it would do so by what appears to be a new grant of regulatory authority to the Treasury Department:
“SEC. 6049A. RETURNS REGARDING NON-INTEREST BEARING DEPOSITS.
“(a) Requirement Of Reporting.—Every person who holds a reportable deposit during any calendar year shall make a return according to the forms or regulations prescribed by the Secretary, setting forth the name and address of the person for whom such deposit was held.
Even if not intended by Congress, the danger is that any new statutory authority by could be used (or abused) by Treasury to promulgate new regulations on domestic institutions as promised to foreign governments under unauthorized, non-treaty FATCA “intergovernmental agreements” and the OECD’s insidious “Automatic Exchange of Information” scheme, a/k/a global FATCA or “GATCA.”
ACTION ITEM: Right now, go to this link, find your Representative, and write a short email stating:
Dear [Name]:
I am opposed to Sec. 603 of the Senate-passed version of H.R. 1295 (“Trade Preferences Extension Act”), which would open the door to indiscriminate fishing of private financial information and providing it to foreign governments! Please ensure that this odious section is not approved by the House and is dropped from the final bill.
Let’s get this done!
James George Jatras
Does this mean than any renunciant (i.e. non-US citizen, non-US resident) who has a non-interest bearing US bank account will be forced back into the US tax system because the US bank will be filing a DATCA report on them? How’s that going to sit with US banks? Why does the IRS want even more forms flooding in which are irrelevant to US taxes owed? (If an account earns zero, the tax is zero — duh?) Is the US government getting set to instigate a program which will tax assets, in addition to earnings on those assets? Bankers in Texas and Florida whose salaries reflect the large foreign deposits they are holding will not be pleased I’m sure. Absurdity piles upon absurdity as the USA goes barking mad.
@ James Jatras
All the things which could not possibly happen are happening. Glad you’re on this but the evil agenda of total surveillance and total control is extremely devious and unrelenting. It seems any tiny step back is quickly followed by a giant step forward. It’s discouraging.
From the link in Jatra’s post:
Letter from the Financial Industry to Senate:
http://consumerbankers.com/cba-issues/comment-letters/joint-letter-re-sec-603
From the letter:
James is correct about the urgency. THIS is what the Senate does while pretending to appreciate the harm FATCA is doing worldwide.
The question: Will the US banking industry put up with what FATCA via US Treasury has imposed on the rest of the world.
And giving US Treasury new powers also is an urgent issue, one that the financial industry is leery of and rejects. Or certainly appear to considering the contents of their letter.
Further to that, this also, as James states, leading to GATCA and all the dangers that would entail.
@All
There was a glitch in my Alert, and the link for the House directory was dropped. To find your Congressman/woman, go to:
http://www.house.gov/representatives/
Frankly, we are very fortunate that our law team was able to get a Summary Trial. For time is really of the essence. And it is running out.
IF we do not get at least Summary relief and we go to full trial without it, time will be even more against us than it is now.
Realizing that ADCS lawsuit is the ONLY game worldwide to fight this thing should send supporters and donors rushing to donate!
For one can see by all of this the back door game they are playing. While on it’s face, Senate is pretending to be sympathetic to those who fight FATCA, THIS is what they are doing behind closed doors.
Would any of us have known what the Senate passed on MAY 14th if James had not sent out the alarm? –
And let’s not ever pretend that GATCA and the TPP are not sovereignty KILLERS and that FATCA IS the net that draws everything in to both these ABOMINATIONS of global ‘order’ !
To EmBee’s questions: God only knows. I doubt the Senate language was inserted with FATCA in mind, but who knows. The immediate problem is that the House might just voice vote the Senate-passed language without further action, to “keep the trains running.”
Oh, for he good old days of “gridlock” . . .
Re:
“Does this mean than any renunciant (i.e. non-US citizen, non-US resident) who has a non-interest bearing US bank account will be forced back into the US tax system because the US bank will be filing a DATCA report on them?” I would expect that. The trouble with any new grant of regulatory authority is that they’ll use it to do any damn thing they want.
“How’s that going to sit with US banks?” As you see, they’ve written in in opposition. Butit seems they were also caught napping in the Senate.
“Why does the IRS want even more forms flooding in which are irrelevant to US taxes owed? (If an account earns zero, the tax is zero — duh?) Is the US government getting set to instigate a program which will tax assets, in addition to earnings on those assets?” Inquiring minds want to know. Why do they want all your emails and phone records? Because, that’s why. If you’ve done nothing wrong, what have you got to hide . . . ? Don’t you want to fight money laundering, terrorism, etc.? No kidding, that’s the way these people think.
link updated above
http://www.house.gov/representatives/
Has anybody told Rand Paul?
“Has anybody told Rand Paul?”
His people are aware, but I will ping them again. Trouble is, this is the House. This horse has already left the Senate barn while everyone was napping.
@Jim:
And JUST HOW did this get past Senator Paul in the first place?
He has been so staunch an advocate of ending this sort of thing for such a long time, mostly alone.
Good observation.Keep on. US -fatca-irs vvould established minimum amount on account s that don t go under fatca rules.. Thay have to have a preciise cut..On that vvay vvill not distrubed million of people and vvill not get extra information for purpose that thay don t need and thay are not alovved to have..Keep in mind that thay share all information vvith NSA and thirtd parties.Stop curisiority ( snipping ).
@ Jim Jatras
Thanks for answering. Looks like people who should be off scope (in and out of the USA) will be shanghaied aboard the USS IRS unless the House can be persuaded to torpedo Sec. 603. For those who still have US representatives — PLEASE write to them about this. BTW I read recently just how much of a travesty those voice votes are. Rep. Massie apparently does his best to prevent them. He would be a good one to alert I think.
http://thestand.liberty.me/congressman-massies-500-yard-run-that-is-driving-congress-crazy/
@FuriousAC
Re “And JUST HOW did this get past Senator Paul in the first place?” Even with a staff, he’s still just one Senator out of a hundred. He’s not on Finance, the Senate committee of jurisdiction.
Keep in mind how things get done, or not done, in Congress. With thousands and thousands of provisions in hundreds of bills in the pipeline at any one time, Senators and Congressmen and their staffs rely on those evil lobbyists to keep an eye open for things that impact *them*, so they can give friendly offices a heads-up. On this one, even the financial institutions that have skin in the game missed it in the Senate and just now have weighed in with a letter. Normally, since their interests are at stake, they would sound the alarm on a timely basis. That didn’t happen. You notice their letter is also not about FATCA or GATCA — they were just looking at this reporting tweak on its face an another annoying little reg, evidently not seeing the big picture.
Also (at the risk of sounding whiny), since no one has been interested in supporting a lobbying presence to monitor and thwart initiatives specifically relating to FATCA/GATCA, there’s no one (including Yours Truly) who’s made it, literally, his business to do that. I try to do it on a sporadic basis as spare time allows, but nothing like what’s required. If it weren’t for the sharp eyes of Timothy S., which is what prompted me to poke around a bit and sound the alert, we *still* might be unaware of this deadly provision.
As Fatca was enacted in other countries, a comment from legislator in those countries was that it was a bill of hundreds of pages. And what we know is that all of those hundreds of pages were there to simply gather the 2 data points of place of birth and citizenship (and then connect it to asset value).
The legislators who are technically adept with lawspeak are able to dominate, when supported by some uber authority who tells the entire voting party to vote yes and not worry about reading the bill.
@JamesJatras:
Well, Thank GOD you did get a heads up and did a bit of poking around and sound the alert.
When I think of all the damage they have already done, never mind what THIS will do worldwide, I shudder to think how close we have come and do come to the precipice of ending all individual freedom and skidding over the cliff of eternal global servitude.
@EmBee
“Rep. Massie apparently does his best to prevent them. He would be a good one to alert I think.” Good idea! I’m on it.
FYI, I am Timothy S
Tim
All,
I will add this was really done on the sly even compared to the HIRE act. From public information I did not find out until after it passed the Senate but at best all I could have done without any DC contacts is find out 24 hours beforehand.
Re “FYI, I am Timothy S”
I know. {{;-{)}}}
@Tim and Jim:
Well, Tim, Thank God you twigged to it. The HIRE act deviousness was bad enough and these Senators ought to know better!
It is a shame and a disgrace the way they fail at the job they were given to do!
And Jim, you don’t ever sound whiny to me!! Nor do I think you do to the rest of us here, either!
@ Tim and Jim
Thanks for sounding the alarm on this. If you haven’t already done so, I might also suggest contacting Jim Bopp and Republicans Overseas, Robert Wood at Forbes and Alex Newman at The New American (can’t believe I’m saying this since I once thought I had a drop of Democratic blood running through my veins, thanks to my mother).
ACA might be interested but there’s obviously no point talking to Democrats Abroad since they’ve tied themselves to the mast of the “Safe Harbor” shipwreck and would probably think Section 603 is just peachy-keen.
Also, has anyone else noticed the irony of how this letter might have served as the template for some push-back from the rest of the world five years ago – if the rest of the world had had any balls or self-respect whatsoever?
Imagination ON
“March 18, 2010
Senator Mitch McConnell
U.S. Senate
Washington, D.C. 20510
Representative John Boehner
Majority Leader Speaker
U.S. House of Representatives
Washington, D.C. 20515
Dear Majority Leader McConnell and Speaker Boehner:
The undersigned, representing over 500,000 so-called “foreign financial institutions” of all charter types and over 200 so-called “sovereign states”, write to express our grave concern about an onerous revenue provision included in the Hiring Incentives to Restore Employment (HIRE) Act, which passed the Senate on March 17, 2010.
Chapter 4 of the legislation would change current law to require banks, credit unions, broker/dealers, insurance companies and/or every nation around the world to find any American account holders and disclose their balances, receipts, and withdrawals to the US Internal Revenue Service or be subject to a 30-percent withholding tax on income from US financial assets held by foreign financial institutions. Owners of these foreign-held assets must report them on US tax returns if they are worth more than $50,000 and those who do not would be subject to a 30-percent penalty on the balance of the account in question. This change would be effective for the current tax year of 2010, giving banks, credit unions and national revenue and taxation authorities little time to adapt their systems for compliance, even if there was any intention to do so. More fundamentally, this change represents a unilateral, extraterritorial and completely unacceptable attack on the sovereignty of every nation and the privacy rights of their citizens which we, the undersigned, solemnly declare will never submit to.”
Imagination OFF
Of course the HIRE Act was actually signed and passed into law by President Barack Obama on March 18, 2010, leaving no time for protest or debate, which was nonexistent anyway (as were the IGA’s, at that time, but hey, it’s my imagination). Today, there is very little time to overturn Section 603, but plenty of protest and debate is still possible!
I really don’t understand (or perhaps I am just very naive) how the GOP controlled Senate would pass this where the RNC has taken a 100% anti FATCA position. Frankly, it makes me wonder if the Jim Bopp suit will actually ever be filed and prosecuted like the Canadian litigation is. This may all just be smoke and mirrors by the GOP. I won’t be donating any more money to the Bopp suit until I see it filed and read the complaint myself. All very disappointing and at this point I am suffering from FATCA/GATCA fatigue.
@Deckard1138
Thanks for the idea re Robert Wood. I’ll ping him.
I sent it yesterday to Alex Newman, have not heard back from him yet.
Republicans Overseas has already posted it: https://www.facebook.com/republicansoverseas/posts/389512234565911 It’s also posted on RO’s France and UK sites. I understand RO also has a letter in the works.
More postings and more emails to Congress appreciated!
Latest on the situation
The House might take up the Senate-passed version of the bill “under suspension” – no debate or amendments – maybe next week, rubber-stamping this provision. (I’m an old Senate rat, so I don’t fully understand House procedure.) Shades of how FATCA got through, trains running on time. Makes one yearn for the good ol’ days of “gridlock” . . .
Bottom line, there needs to be some way to slow the train down and make the House take a look at this, and give time for the opposition to mobilize. The signatory organizations on the letter could do that, but I don’t know if they’re focused on the procedural skids already greased in the House. I am working my connections on the FATCA issue, as well as GOP leadership.
But voices of the financial industry can make all the difference here. Anyone you know with a bank, credit union, insurance company, etc., who can contact *their* Congressman and tell them they are against this is crucial. Even if it’s not for any reason related to FATCA/GATCA. Like the letter at http://consumerbankers.com/cba-issues/comment-letters/joint-letter-re-sec-603 , just saying it’s dumb to get rid of the $10 de minimis threshold for reporting to IRS is sufficient.
@ Jim Jatras
If you’re talking to Robert Wood, you might suggest this title for his post:
“FATCA Chickens Finally Come Home To Roost”
😉