The US Government Accountability Office has released an 83 page Report to Congressional Committees, “Foreign Asset Reporting: Actions Needed to Enhance Compliance Efforts, Eliminate Overlapping Requirements, and Mitigate Burdens on U.S. Persons Abroad”. Thanks to JC for posting this link on the Media page.
Related Brock post: April 2019 Report From GAO is evidence of how #FATCA and Foreign Asset Reporting is viewed in the Homeland by USCitizenAbroad.
@nerousinvestor
Mr Arvay is our LITIGATOR.
Nervous Investor – Apologies if offended,…
You are right, follow the light, One Love.
@ Polly,
Re: “Mr Arvay is our LITIGATOR.”
Similar name but a different person, our litigator is Joseph Arvay.
Re: “Treasury and State officials reached agreements with FFIs in Switzerland to provide a wider range of financial services to U.S. persons.”
From Switzerland resident twitter rally member who has been following it all for a few years:
“in any case, i’ve seen no actual result. services remain limited.”
So the USG thinks that by having a chat with Swiss banks to expand financial services for US Persons in Switzerland that they now actually have expanded services, to the extent that the USG pats themselves on the back in this report for taking the initiative. No change from that action!
IMO, these are substantive admissions/acknowledgements in the report in regards to FATCA causing a surge in renunciations:
“According to Department of State (State) data, annual approvals of renunciations of U.S. citizenship increased from 1,601 to 4,449—or nearly 178 percent—from 2011 through 2016, attributable in part to the difficulties cited above.”
“U.S. embassy documents indicate there was increased demand for Social Security Numbers (SSN) since FATCA’s passage in 2010, driven in part by U.S. citizens applying for an SSN to gain access to foreign financial services or resolve outstanding U.S. tax obligations before completing renunciation.”
“According to U.S. embassy documents and information provided by focus group participants and interviewees across all the countries we examined, FATCA was the reason or a contributing factor in some of these decisions and the resulting increase in total renunciations.”
“Specific effects of FATCA implementation contributing to decisions to renounce U.S. citizenship included reduced access to foreign financial services and employment or promotion opportunities in a foreign-owned company—as identified above from our document reviews, focus groups, and interviews—and burdens in meeting FATCA reporting requirements.”
“However, SSA officials said they have not been involved in any ongoing efforts involving Treasury to identify systemic issues and related solutions involving SSNs for the purposes of tax compliance and citizenship renunciations.”
Can any of this be used in the Canadian FATCA IGA Lawsuit? I believe the Canadian Government kind of hints that there is nothing to see here (in regards to FATCA IGA impacts), yet the report confirms adverse impacts of FATCA IGAs.
never seen the name Arvay before and now I see it twice,
btw- what it going on with the litigation? no verdict yet?
Polly, you are correct: It has been about three months since the Federal Court trial, but the Justice has not yet come up with a ruling.
Our Charter arguments (this is a Charter case) were that Canada’s FATCA IGA legislation violates Charter sections 8 and 15 and that a section 1 override is not justified.