[SEPTEMBER 27, 2016 UPDATE: “The Hill” today picked up on the upcoming House Oversight Committee hearings on FATCA. Obviously the fight will be challenging and there are lots of reasons to complain and be skeptical about an attempt by some U.S. Congresspeople to kill FATCA — note the tax compliance pundit in the Hill article who justifies FATCA because Treasury has spent a lot of money on it — but the FATCA hearing will happen despite the naysayers.]
Recently, Representative Mark Meadows introduced a bill in the U.S. Congress (complementary to a similar bill in the U.S. Senate) to repeal FATCA.
Witnesses are now being sought who have been significantly harmed by FATCA and are willing to testify at the Congressional hearing on FATCA in Washington D.C. Details on timings, length of testimony etc. are to be worked out. If you are interested in testifying please send Keith Redmond an email at: FATCA_Testimonials@outlook.com
Although a focus is FATCA, if you have been significantly harmed by U.S.-imposed citizenship-based taxation, which is enforced by FATCA, please also consider testifying at the hearing.
Hello Bubble…..I think it’s abundantly clear that the main issue is not the tax code itself though I am sure there are issues with that, it’s attempting to apply that code to people who do not live in the country that is the source of the problems. And so many of them.
There is no freedom to leave a country if the price is loss of citizenship, because that’s a hell of a price to pay and an impossible price for many. Americans are not free to leave the USA, hunted down and punished if they try. Perhaps punishment was not the intent, but it’s certainly the reality.
As far as I’m concerned, the USA is the largest open prison on the planet. Freedom to leave is an illusion. Yes you can still leave, IF you pay the price. The Universal Declaration of Human rights says quite clearly that a person may come and go freely without a price or hindrance. That is clearly not the case for an American.
I’m off to lunch now at my local pub, one where we have an American who works a couple of shifts to supplement her husbands pension. One of those “rich tax cheats” we’ve heard all about. Well, she probably is, given that she lives her life in hiding, no bank account and paid for her shift in cash.
I am ashamed of my own country for failing to protect her.
In addition the the problem of illegal immigration, the US now has the problem of illegal emigrants – illegal in the respect that they don’t pay US tax and can potentially pay a price for not doing so.
@Mike
You sated
“No I am not one of those with another citizenship, I am one of those who is quite confident that nobody was going to try and remove me because there was no good reason to try and every reason not to, and secondly, couldn’t if they wanted to due to basic human rights laws. ”
It was you who sated that you were relying on basic human rights laws not to have to leave the country in which you work but do not hold a citizenship.
You may be protected by the possession of a job which is valued in your resident country which carries with it the access to healthcare.
British pensioners living abroad gain access to healthcare due to a reciprocal agreement through the EU, it is the risk of losing that healthcare that will prevent them staying in their adopted country. Even those with the ability to pay for private healthcare will find it impossible as insurance companies have no interest in risking coverage to older persons.
These people have effectively had their EU citizenship confiscated
Those who pushed for Brexit had no idea what the full implications were.
Heidi….How can you quote me, then say that I said I was RELYING on human rights laws to prevent me having to leave?
I said there were several reasons why I am not concerned about being forced to leave, if NOTHING ELSE basic human rights laws prevent it. That is NOT the same as RELYING on human rights laws. It would never get to the human rights stage.
I am not protected by having a job, I am protected by being fully paid up member of society in the country in which I live, complete with pension, schools, healthcare and all that goes with it. I pay and have paid my dues like my neighbours.
Nobody who voted in the in the EU referendum knows what the full implications will be, including those who voted to stay. The people who voted to leave want their country back, that’s what they voted for and that’s what they will get.
Are you seriously telling me that those who voted to stay knew what they were voting for? How can that be when the Brussels elite can make up the rules as they go along?
Can you imagine, Heidi, what will happen to the Spanish resorts, and the Spanish economy as a whole if Spain and Britain do not come to a mutual arrangement regarding health care post Brexit?
EU citizenship confiscated?
The British were never asked if they wanted EU citizenship imposed on them in the first place.
@Mike
They were asked, they chose to join the EU with the right to live and work within it.
If you do not think that your rights are threatened then read this latest from France.
https://www.connexionfrance.com/index.php/French-news/Brexit/EU-to-investigate-cartes-de-sejour-problems-in-France
I do not doubt that the EU want to extend those rights but I am not impressed by May’s lack of commitment to those rights as I believe she wants to use her citizens as bargaining chips.
You now have the protection of a ‘elite’ of the EU being replaced by a small group of Tory elite of Britain many of whom have ulterior motives from detaching themselves from the safety of the collective decisions of the EU. Decisions that brought in control of bank bonuses, and challenged the US when it wanted to keep our data on their ‘safe harbor’ mainframes, and gave us the clean air act and the clean water act, all of which the UK had ignored.
It is no coincidence that those newspapers who drove Brexit are all owned by people who do not live or pay tax in Britain. At least the US requires that from it’s news organisations.
I am in the medical field and already there has been a downturn of Scientists and Dr’s prepared to come to the UK.
I believe this will be a total disaster, but I feel this is not the place to argue, we will not change each others minds. We shall have to wait and see.
Heidi…The British were NOT asked if they wished to join the EU, they were asked if they wanted to join the Common Market. A free trade organisation, NOT a political super state with ever more power going to incompetent, overpaid, under taxed and unelected Eurocrats who’s political ambitions come way out in front of any practical considerations, the Euro being the best shining example. The Common Market is NOTHING like what the EU is today. They were not asked if they wished to join the new United States of Europe, but without the US work ethic and with a socialist lean.
If a person is so stupid as to not take a job in the UK because of Brexit, It’s probably best they stay where they are anyway. Personally, I would suggest such whining has more political roots than practical. What are they now afraid of, precisely? Would they also not take a job in any other country on the planet if it’s not part of the EU?!
If some French communes are not following the free movement rules, let the EU deal with it. For one thing, it shows that perhaps Theresa May is perhaps correct in waiting to see that British citizens have their rights respected before allowing any and all current UK residents carte blanche to stay whatever their circumstances.
Safety of the collective decisions of the EU? You have got to be kidding me!
It was the EU that had the power to tell the USA to go fly a kite when they imposed FATCA, but did they?
Of course you decided Brexit is going to be a disaster, that’s what happens when you feed nonsense in to your decision making process. Heck, on another forum I saw one person asking what the heck we were going to do for food when we leave the EU?! Yes, they think it will be a disaster too.
As an aside, were you one of the many who said that not joining the Euro would be a disaster? Probably I suspect.
“In addition the the problem of illegal immigration, the US now has the problem of illegal emigrants – illegal in the respect that they don’t pay US tax and can potentially pay a price for not doing so.”
Sorry, just noticed this. Yes you are right, and come to think of it another way, most Americans have been reduced to breaking the law in order to leave. That’s quite something to think about.
Well Mike
You think it might be easy to leave the UK and work elsewhere after Brexit. There will be the need for Visa applications to work anywhere outside the UK and then the Eu would make you prove that there is no other EU citizen more ‘qualified’ to do your job . The young now will be limited in their choice , maybe they can go to the USA, as we will be drawn even further into being their poodle.
I will end now as I really do not think this is the forum to have this debate which stemmed from your statement that other countries resented their citizens moving and working abroad. I have not encountered this once with liberal minded acaedemics, Drs, nurses, teachers.
I hear from friends and relatives of mine that in villages and towns in Britain half the population are not speaking to the other half and families are banning the debate at home. I sincerely hope that Britain survives this divisive move.
That is all I will say on this subject. I wish you well in the choices you have made.
PS,
No I did not want to join the euro, I believed the UK had a real benefit by keeping the independence of the pound but post Brexit they may well regret it when the pound plummets.
You say
“It was the EU that had the power to tell the USA to go fly a kite when they imposed FATCA, but did they?”
No, but no one did, including Boris Johnson who has the reason and ability to expose this as a US/UK citizen caught in this maelstrom but he kept quiet and did nothing to expose FATCA. He is the calibre of the Brexit politicians whom you are putting your trust in.
“I hear from friends and relatives of mine that in villages and towns in Britain half the population are not speaking to the other half and families are banning the debate at home”
That’s because Trump’s mother came from Scotland and the other half favoured Clinton. Elections break up more families than FATCA.
@Norman
Always entertaining to read your comments. 🙂