Author Archives: swisspinoy

“En Nicaragua he notado como que las personas todavía tienen una falsa esperanza, por así decirlo, que tal vez Fatca se acabe, que tal vez el gobierno americano cambie de opinión (…) Muchos clientes todavía no saben de esa ley porque los bancos todavía no han tomado los pasos para notificar a sus clientes”, afirma.

Google translation:

“In Nicaragua I noticed how people still have a false hope, so to speak, that perhaps FATCA is over, maybe the U.S. government to change its mind (…) Many customers still do not know the law because banks have not yet taken steps to notify their customers, ” he says.

Source

Here’s an excellent article from the National Post.

27/09/13 5:23 American expats feeling less free as draconian tax law kicks in

This is another side of the story which is less discussed.  I don’t have any time to translate right now, so here is the google translation:

Much effort for corporations

Each group now has to analyze hundreds of worldwide Group companies in order to clarify exactly how it is affected by the FATCA. Companies such as ABB, Holcim, Nestlé and Novartis Check this moment. According to Novartis tax expert Roxana Leske to be seen not least affected by the U.S. rules Due to the necessary clarifications and additional information to be specified obligations to document many companies.

For groups of companies from the industry’s activities are affected by the FATCA, according to expert estimates, less than 1%. The affected companies have until mid-2014, time to register these units in the U.S. tax authorities. A failure can be costly: A withholding tax of 30% is due, and it threatens even buses when was violate local laws.However, the Group’s internal review is still necessary for any other reason. Because the corporations want to invest in U.S. securities, they must specify their FATCA status at the bank, which in turn is under the FATCA.

Even smaller companies

About their banking relationship even small companies can be acquired without financial activities, if they are owned by Americans. For U.S. citizens must also be reported by the bank, if the company is a majority-passive activities. This is to prevent U.S. citizens hide their money from the treasury by companies are interposed. For the U.S. tax authorities of the marginal benefit in getting wider fight against tax evasion takes Although source, however, doubt the network is rather too far ejected and thus includes companies that are the authorities perhaps never report in practice a U.S. taxpayer. The U.S. system is to suppress all just kind of possible workarounds, so that as no tax evaders more falls through the cracks.

US-Monstergesetz trifft auch die Industrie

In 2006, Lisa Lord moved to Heidelberg, Germany, to set up a new talent-management team for software giant SAP AG.

Ms. Lord had been working in the U.S. for the German company for two years and was eager to move up the ranks. But a department reorganization split her duties, and by June 2007 she was back in the U.S. with no clear next position waiting for her at SAP.

Spending a few years overseas can vault ambitious employees into senior leadership positions. But companies aren’t always prepared when those workers return home, veteran expatriates and executive recruiters say. Often, the right domestic jobs aren’t open, or management fails to recognize and reward the skills developed during the time abroad, they say. The resulting frustrations can cause some managers to stumble, and even send some out the door.

Read more at Wall Street Journal

The following lists some arguments made in defense of FATCA, and this is only the beginning.  The attacks against Americans in defense of FATCA will increase.  FATCA teaches the American to hate Americans and for all the wrong reasons.

for the little UWFF (“quote“) unfuckable WhiteKat FBAR fraudster it is tick-tack , after you had the guts to come out of hiding and reveal yourself to the IRS and comply with current law we move to tick-tock which you might hear from the inside of a prison cell   1

What a jerk! “ lol……. keep dreaming my little fraudster, the clock is ticking. I am happy that you think in your little pathetic world you “beat the you know what out of him“….. wow please don`t forget to take your pills again. 2

Actually, he’s one of those spoiled self-centered Libertarian brats whining because the rest of the world won’t let him get away with whatever he wants the way his mommy and daddy used to.  3

nobody has a debate here with FBAR fraudsters like yourself – you have to earn that right which you fail by hiding and not complying with the law. Your are a cheat plain and simple who is barely capable of putting a sentence together. Talk to to the IRS and see if they think YOU make sense.  4

yes we know little FBAR fraudster like yourself do not believe in any authority especially when they come after you for not complying with the law.  5

you’re pretty stupid and have a hard time understanding things like politics and government. It’s only a human rights issue if people are denied access to services by government decree. If people cannot access services from the institution of their first choice as a result of a private sector response to a government policy then the denial of service is the result of a corporate policy and cannot be blamed on the government.  6

So, there you have it.  According to America, all Americans living abroad are “offshore tax dodgers” since they are taxed where they live to pay for the infrastructure they use.

A poll this year commissioned by the Main Street Alliance and the American Sustainable Business Council found 85 percent of small business owners oppose the “territorial” tax system pushed by offshore tax dodgers. By a margin of more than two to one, small business owners prefer closing corporate tax loopholes over cuts to education, infrastructure or Social Security and Medicare.

It’s time to end offshore tax dodging and close tax loopholes that benefit large corporations and wealthy special interests. Use the revenue to invest in strengthening the economy and creating jobs.

A residency-based tax system is pushed by Americans living abroad and anyone who pushes a residency-based tax system is automatically branded by America as being an “offshore tax dodger”, or “trash” which needs to be thrown away.

Whether you’re a small business owner cleaning restaurants in Billings or a U.S. Senator cleaning up the tax code in D.C., the first step is taking out the trash.

Why does America seek to trash its diaspora?  Because it believes that they are pirates sailing around with stolen treasure.

Against this backdrop, some big business titans amazingly have the gall to advocate doubling down on offshore tax dodging, aggressively lobbying for a permanent tax “get-out-of-taxes-free” card on offshore profits — a so-called “territorial” tax system — while backing cuts to Social Security and Medicare that would wreak further havoc on the Main Street economy. In short, small business owners and our customers get trash while corporate pirates sail offshore with the treasure.

I doubt that Gy Moody,  the owner of Cleaner Image Janitorial in Billings, Montana, and writer of this article realized that he was advocating for Americans living abroad to be thrown away as “tax cheats”.  Yet, the impact of US policy on Americans living abroad has never been an American concern, as one fellow kindly stated to one who does not live in America:

The government is not responsible for actions of private sector organizations. To support a claim of rights violations you have to be able to demonstrate the denials were the result of an order given by a government to not provide services. Claiming that rights are being violated because a bank executive opted not to provide services will not stand up in court. The fact that you didn’t understand that concept, and see how adjusting Federal policy in response to decisions made by Swiss bank executives tells me that you’re pretty stupid and have a hard time understanding things like politics and government. It’s only a human rights issue if people are denied access to services by government decree. If people cannot access services from the institution of their first choice as a result of a private sector response to a government policy then the denial of service is the result of a corporate policy and cannot be blamed on the government.
FATCA: The end of financial privacy

The US government clearly doesn’t give a damn if Americans are harmed as a result of US policy, but it is eager to brand its expats as “tax cheats” and to throw them away as “trash”.

US government handed over intercepted communications likely to contain phone calls and emails of American citizens. The agreement places no legally binding limits on the use of the data.

American citizen, the US government is eager to donate your privacy to any nation in the world, so that they may use it as they please.  Welcome to FATCA!

The disclosure that the NSA agreed to provide raw intelligence data to a foreign country contrasts with assurances from the Obama administration that there are rigorous safeguards to protect the privacy of US citizens caught in the dragnet

Source: NSA shares raw intelligence including Americans’ data

HONG KONG, CHINA (Catholic Online) – As Americans live and work overseas, they find themselves facing onerous tax reporting requirements designed to crack down on tax evaders. However, the paperwork and reporting requirements are exhausting.

For a few Americans, it is easier to renounce their citizenship and escape the burden.
Catholic Online

Also, from Jamaica:

Growing number of Americans giving up US citizenship

…US embassy in Kingston said it could not provide such figures as it wasn’t the Department of State that maintains statistics on renunciations and relinquishment of citizenship.

It said, too, that it couldn’t comment on the reasons people choose to renounce their citizenship as these were “individual and personal decisions”.

“A person who renounces US citizenship may, but is not required to, disclose his/her motivation for doing so,” the embassy told the Jamaica Observer by e-mail.

It explained that the Federal Register lists included persons who made renunciations in the presence of a consular officer, as well as those who lost citizenship by “performing another potentially expatriating act voluntarily and with the intent to relinquish US citizenship”.

“For example, if a US citizen voluntarily naturalises in another country and affirmatively represents to a consular officer that this was his/her intent to relinquish US citizenship at the time he/she naturalised, he/she would lose his/her US nationality and would be listed in the Federal Register”…

Jamaica Observer

It all began with WWII.  During the war, my father was assigned the role of a flamethrower and refused to burn living human beings, regardless if they were Nazis, Jews, Americans or anyone.  Being a conscious objector during the war, the Swiss government gave him two choices.  Either he could go to jail or he had to leave the country. So, my father went to Canada and then later to America where he is still living today.  That’s where I come into the picture.

In 2001, I was working in America and wrote an email to my spouse, who was living in Hong Kong and waiting for approval to join me in America, that there were no job openings in America but that Swiss companies were hiring.  Accidently, my employer saw the email and I was fired the next day as well as being kicked out of two financial services (my retirement funds were taxed and cashed without my approval), causing my wife’s immigration application to be resubmitted all over again.  It was during the Dot-Com crisis and my chances of finding a job in the US were non-existant.

Laid-off technology experts, such as computer programmers, found a glutted job market. University degree programs for computer-related careers saw a noticeable drop in new students. Anecdotes of unemployed programmers going back to school to become accountants or lawyers were common.
Wiki

At the time, I was working on getting a college degree and sent my resume to over a hundred companies which mostly didn’t respond.   Nevertheless, I was able to find a new job locally within a few weeks and was invited to Switzerland for an interview.

So, I flew to Switzerland and was hired by two large international firms at the same time within a few weeks, both offering double the pay and with better benefits.  I had to choose.  Months later, my spouse joined me there.

11 years later, I learned that Swiss banks were rejecting little people simply because they had US citizenship and as a result of US policy.  Since I already had experience of getting kicked out of banks and since I had no reason or motive to work in America, it was clear that the US citizenship had to go.

Living in the US, I did various jobs for many companies and didn’t always have a bad experience.  Life in America is not always as grand as it may be believed to be and I often struggled to make a living there.  Once I worked on an onion field, earning about $1/hour.  Then I delivered papers for about $2/per hour with lots of shoulder pain from the heavy load when helping out other routes.  Later, I washed dishes for about $3.5/hour and quit since they refused to give me a 10 cent pay raise, even though I was the fasted and most efficient dish washer they ever had. Prior to that, I was promoted to busboy and then demoted again the same day since my cute Mexican coworker lied about me since I didn’t look Mexican.  The customers absolutely loved me and gave me many tips that day.  Another time, I was fired from a library because I once made a single 10 cents copy.  Ironically, I was hired the next day across the street as a paper copier!  In the Army, I worked hard and was rewarded with a punishment to set an example for others, since my ride was late, I got a traffic ticket and my former Mexican roomate who stole my things lied about me in defense of his crimes.   Afterwards, I was promoted 3 times in only 6 months but my military spirit had died.  Overall, I find that the American job market is often trigger-happy, overreacting to strongly to non-issues.   In Switzerland, on the contrary, I’m trusted, my skills and motivation are respected and appreciated and my minor human errors are forgiven.

My advice to anyone thinking about working in America is to think again.  It is not for everyone.

The following claims were made by Tick-Tock-Tick-Tock – US Swiss Tax Deal Imminent:

• Time is running out.
• A willful failure to file is considered a felony punishable by five years in prison.
• Holders of unreported foreign accounts have more than jail to fear.
• the IRS has proven itself very adept at finding taxpayers that have not filed an FBAR.
• Those that are caught can expect both a tax bill and a penalty assessment of the greater of $100,000 or half the highest balance in the account.
• Making things worse for taxpayers is next year’s looming FATCA law.
• If the IRS thinks you moved or renamed your account to avoid detection, chances of criminal prosecution increase dramatically.
• The Quiet Disclosure strategy not only doesn’t work, it sets up taxpayers for a huge interest and penalty bill.
• The IRS publicly states on their amnesty website that those who try to quietly send any missing FBAR forms to the Service Center may find themselves in hot water.

Eritreans can feel themselves lucky.  Their government is far less criminal against its diaspora.