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FATCA Discussion Thread (Ask your questions) Part Two

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Please ask your questions here about FATCA.

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3,498 thoughts on “FATCA Discussion Thread (Ask your questions) Part Two”

  1. @Just me
    Those things that at one time might have made for an interesting life of freedom and worldliness, FATCA now makes suspicious and dirty. Way to go land o’ the free.

  3. On Wed, May 8, 2013 at 1:09 AM, Jatras, James G. wrote:
    Treasury Department’s Promises of U.S. ‘Reciprocity’ Dead

    Senator Rand Paul Introduces Bill to Repeal FATCA!

    James George Jatras for RepealFATCA.com

    May 7, 2013
    Washington, DC

    In a major game-changer, Senator Rand Paul (Republican of Kentucky) today introduced a bill to repeal mandates of the “Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act” (FATCA) on financial institutions and individual American citizens as a “violation of sovereign nations’ laws and privacy matters.” In a letter to his Senate colleagues, Dr. Paul pulled no punches about the destructive effects of the FATCA law and the unsupportable claims that FATCA is a legitimate tool to combat tax evasion:

    “I intend to offer a bill to repeal certain provisions of the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act, or FATCA (P.L. 111-147). The intent of this law was to prevent tax evasion by increasing access to overseas bank accounts held by U.S. citizens. However, any law enforcement benefits have been vastly outweighed by the deleterious effects of FATCA on economic growth and the financial privacy of Americans.

    “FATCA requires the financial institutions of foreign countries to register directly with the IRS, and to provide financial information on the accounts of U.S. citizens – regardless of whether or not these U.S. citizens are suspected of tax evasion. A failure to comply with these requirements subjects that foreign financial institution (FFI) to a 30% withholding of U.S.-derived revenues. This has had the practical effect of forcing FFIs to relinquish any association with American customers, and to avoid direct investment in the United States. It goes without saying that overseas investment in the U.S. is an important engine of our economic growth and prosperity. FATCA endangers an estimated $25 trillion in foreign capital currently invested in the U.S.

    “Perhaps even more troubling, the implementation of FATCA has allowed the Treasury Department to make independent decisions with respect to the sovereignty of foreign nations and the privacy of United States citizens. In order to implement this law, Treasury has initiated intergovernmental agreements (IGAs), citing the intent to engage in reciprocal information sharing with other nations. The Treasury Department, without the consent and authority of Congress, will force U.S. financial institutions to provide the bank account information of private customers to foreign nations. Such a requirement not only diminishes U.S. privacy protections, but also imposes billions of dollars in compliance costs here at home, which will be passed onto customers and the American public.

    “My bill is drafted with the intention of removing only FATCA provisions that undermine Americans’ constitutional privacy protections and add burdensome regulations with a negative economic impact on the United States. Other provisions enacted at the same time, such as those pertaining to clarification of foreign trusts and treatment of dividends that do not have those negative impacts, have been left alone. The intent of this bill is not to disrupt legitimate tax enforcement, only to repeal counterproductive and constitutionally suspect mandates.”

    Senator Paul’s bold and principled action comes on the heels of a federal lawsuit against the U.S. Treasury Department and the Internal Revenue Service by the Texas Bankers Association and Florida Bankers Association. In that suit, the bankers assert they will lose billions of dollars in business over improperly imposed regulations to report on foreign residents’ deposits to foreign governments. Such reporting, a key feature in the so-called “reciprocal” version of FATCA “intergovernmental agreements” (IGAs) non-U.S. governments are being pressured to sign, is just the camel’s nose under the tent of far more invasive and expensive reporting, for which the Treasury Department recently requested additional authority from Congress.

    It is anticipated that a companion version of Senator Paul’s bill will be introduced shortly in the House of Representatives. In addition, measures to block the Treasury Department from carrying out the IGAs, which have not been authorized by Congress, are expected.

    With the wind in Washington blowing against FATCA, foreign governments are on notice that Treasury’s promises of “reciprocity” are plain rubbish. Congress will not provide the needed authority to rescue this fatally flawed law. Instead of getting aboard the sinking FATCA ship, foreign governments should reject the constitutionally deficient IGAs Treasury has offered them, tell the U.S. they will not comply with FATCA or allow their domestic firms to comply with it, and signal their willingness to fight any illegal sanctions Treasury attempts to impose.

    Activists in Washington are weighing in in support of Senator Paul:

    “Senator Paul’s bold stand against FATCA has come at an opportune time. The world is fed up with U.S. fiscal imperialism, and the economy can ill afford another pointless and self-inflicted wound, as FATCA is the worst economic idea to come out of Congress since Smoot-Hawley. Rather than allow regulators to continue pursuing an unconstitutional ‘intergovernmental agreement’ strategy, it is time for lawmakers to accept defeat and abolish this fatally flawed law. Now would also be a good time for any foreign governments thinking about getting in bed with the US Treasury Department to think again. Their promises for reciprocation are simply worthless.” – Andrew Quinlan, Center for Freedom and Prosperity.

    “The U.S. federal income tax system already imposes 6.7 billion hours of paperwork on individuals and businesses; FATCA would not only worsen this burden here at home, it would also impose onerous new liabilities abroad. The last thing America should be exporting is its complex tax laws. Senator Paul deserves a round of applause from taxpayers in our nation and around the world for recognizing the dangers FATCA poses to our economy and our civil liberties.” – Pete Sepp, National Taxpayers Union.

    It is increasingly clear to everyone that FATCA has almost nothing to do with curbing actual “tax evasion” and everything to do with massive unintended consequences that will lose money for the federal treasury.

    Finally, both American and non-U.S. firms that stand to lose millions of dollars each complying with FATCA need to help push the repeal bill through. FATCA repeal needs to be part of any tax reform deal between Congress and the Obama Administration.

    You can help – contact us at RepealFATCA.com and find out how!

    James George Jatras
    http://www.RepealFATCA.com
    RepealFATCA@gmail.com
    @RepealFATCA
    +1.202.375.1007

    Visit http://www.RepealFATCA.com for more information on “the worst law most Americans have never heard of”!

  4. @Just me
    FATCA may just provide the opportunity for us to watch them tie themselves into knots. How can they justify treading on anyone in the pursuit of defending the downtrodden without becoming the oppressor?

  5. At last some people are able to take steps to end this most stupid of laws. Thanks for post that Joseph, it’s a really good read.

  7. http://www.irs.gov/uac/Newsroom/IRS,-Australia-and-United-Kingdom-Engaged-in-Cooperative-Effort-to-Combat-Offshore-Tax-Evasion

    May 9, 2013

    WASHINGTON — The tax administrations from the United States, Australia and the United Kingdom announced today a plan to share tax information involving a multitude of trusts and companies holding assets on behalf of residents in jurisdictions throughout the world.

    The three nations have each acquired a substantial amount of data revealing extensive use of such entities organized in a number of jurisdictions including Singapore, the British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands and the Cook Islands. The data contains both the identities of the individual owners of these entities, as well as the advisors who assisted in establishing the entity structure.

  8. http://thetaxtimes.blogspot.se/2013/05/the-irs-australia-uk-pool-resources-to.html?goback=.gde_3980909_member_240063655

    The secret records are believed to include those obtained by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists that lay bare the individuals behind covert companies and private trusts in the British Virgin Islands, the Cook Islands, Singapore and other offshore hideaways.

    The hoard of documents obtained by ICIJ represents the biggest stockpile of inside information about the offshore system ever gathered by a media organization.

  9. No doubt, this is stolen information, and the file size is so large because it contains all of the data of all of the innocent people.

  12. http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getDoc.do?type=WQ&reference=E-2013-001271&language=EN

    Parliamentary questions

    7 February 2013: E-001271-13

    Question for written answer
    to the Commission
    Rule 117
    Sophia in ‘t Veld (ALDE)

    Subject: Intergovernmental agreements on the US Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act

    Answer(s)

    The United States Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) requires that foreign financial institutions register with the US Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and promise to identify, collect and report information on US clients’ offshore bank accounts. According to Financial News, entities must register by 25 October 2013 in order to be included on the IRS’s list of compliant institutions to be released in December 2013(1). In order to facilitate this process and ease the burden on financial entities, a number of countries have embarked on negotiations on so-called intergovernmental agreements (IGAs) with the United States on how to implement FATCA rules.

    1. Can the Commission clarify which Member States have to date concluded IGAs on FATCA?

    2. Can the Commission clarify on what legal basis it is ‘coordinating’ the bilateral agreements and conducting talks with the United States? What mandate does the Commission have to engage in talks with the United States?

    3. Can the Commission clarify whether these IGAs can be modified or suspended unilaterally by the United States?

    4. Can the Commission clarify whether, in its view, the reciprocity clause does indeed mean complete symmetry?

    5. Can the Commission clarify the situation for foreign financial institutions from Member States that have not concluded an IGA? Would the foreign financial institutions in these countries be at risk of violating European law, notably data protection law?

    6. Can the Commission clarify whether the European Data Protection Supervisor and the article 29 Data Protection Working Party (WP29) have been consulted on the model agreements, and whether they approve?

    7. Can the Commission explain how FATCA and the IGAs relate to the new EU proposals for fighting tax avoidance and tax evasion?

    8. Can the Commission clarify whether, once the Savings Tax Directive is in force, the United States could theoretically gain access to data from all the Member States through a handful of bilateral agreements?

    9. Can the Commission clarify whether it has conducted an assessment of the financial, administrative and economic impact of the FATCA on European businesses, and whether European businesses are potentially at a competitive disadvantage compared to their US counterparts?

    (1) http://www.efinancialnews.com/story/2013-01-23/ten-things-you-must-know-fatca.

  14. Don’t let your congressman give you a load of Senatorial excrement about how much time it takes to fix a bad bill:

    http://editorial.equities.com/wall-street/obama-signs-stock-act-to-end-insider-trading-by-congress/

    On Jan. 24, 2012, in his State of the Union Address, President Obama said “Send me a bill that bans insider trading by members of Congress, and I will sign it tomorrow.” Immediately after the speech, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) told reporters, “I think people should have enough sense not to do it [insider trading] without legislation, but I will support legislation.” On Feb. 2, 2012, a revised version of the STOCK Act passed in the Senate by a vote of 96-3

    April 2012: Obama Signs STOCK Act to End Insider Trading by Congress,
    In comments before signing the act, President Obama called for further limits to create greater fairness. Calling a sense of fairness a cherished notion for Americans, he said ”It’s the notion that the powerful shouldn’t get to create one set of rules for themselves, and another set of rules for everybody else.” Adding later, “We were sent here to serve the American people and look out for their interests—not to look out for our own interests,”

    April 2013, “shhhhhhh” Obama signs STOCK Act modification.

    President Obama quietly signed legislation Monday that rolled back a provision of the STOCK Act that required high-ranking federal employees to disclose their financial information online.

    The White House announced Monday that the president had signed S. 716, which repealed a requirement of the Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge (STOCK) Act requiring the disclosure—http://thehill.com/blogs/regwatch/1007-other/293919-obama-signs-stock-act-step-back?tmpl=component

  16. John Kerry is coming to Sweden today, to meet with 8 other foreign ministers. The Codependent Carl Bildt of Sweden will meet him at the airport. It seems that a day after the foreign minister leaves any European codependent country, a new IGA is announced. Let’s hold our breath and see whether US persons will need to sell their Swedish assets and get the heck out of dodge.

  17. On Toronto Dominion Bank’s website:

    “The Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) is a law that was passed in the United States as part of the Hiring Incentives to Restore Employment (HIRE) Act in March 2010. FATCA is intended to prevent “U.S. persons” from evading U.S. tax by using financial accounts held outside of the United States. In 2014, non-U.S. financial institutions will be required to identify and report accounts owned by U.S. person(s).

    While much uncertainty still exists regarding the obligations that Canadian Banks will face under FATCA, TD is committed to complying with all applicable laws and regulations in the jurisdictions where TD operates.

    You can find more information about FATCA on the Canadian Bankers Association website by clicking here.”

    http://www.tdcanadatrust.com/customer-service/overview/fatca.jsp

  18. I think that Isaac Brock Society has reached a new achievement. See if you get the same result. Try pasting a Brock item into anything in facebook and see if you can get it to take the post.

    The same thing happens if you were to put in a sovereign man post.

    Mark Zuckerschmuck has blocked Isaac Brock posts.

  20. it seems it might have been my error. Not scandalous, they block the posting of lots of sites they consider to not meet their standards. It should be an honor to be blocked.

  21. To Mark Hubbard and Mark Twain,

    I don’t use FB either so I don’t know if they block all url links (as some other news sources do) or if they are specifically banning the Isaac Brock Society.

    If it’s the latter, it rings of the reason we started this site in the first place. We were having comments relating to US taxes, renunciation and relinquishment summarily deleted from ExpatForum. What a good move that was — thanks, Petros!

  23. http://www.cnbc.com/id/100734171

    Singapore, which hosts offices of the world’s biggest banks, will adopt the OECD standards on information sharing in all of its existing bilateral tax agreements that do not already contain them, as long as it gets reciprocity.

  24. Russia to Join FATCA Tax Watchdog

    Russia’s Finance Ministry and the US Treasury Department should soon finalize an agreement on Russia’s accession to the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA), Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov said on Friday.

    Russia’s accession to FATCA was discussed during a G20 finance ministers meeting in Washington in April, he said.

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