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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. Did anyone see this at Reuters and have any comments or insights…?

    EXCLUSIVE: Public face of controversial AML rule-making effort to leave U.S. Treasury Department

    I assume from reading this, that it is NOT FATCA they are talking about but another AML compliance measure to heap on top of everything else?

    I would truly hate to be a financial institution with all these rules and regs they keep pumping out.

    The compliance division of Reuters Thompson will love it, of course.

  4. “FATCA: Wrong Too to Fix Tax Issues,” Nigel Green

    FATCA is damaging US interests and is too unwieldy to deliver the tax results Washington demands claims Nigel Green, CEO of deVere Group.

    Speaking to NewsMax TV, Green explained his forthright opinions on the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA).

    “The people haven’t thought through the consequences of FATCA,” he said. “On the surface, FATCA tends to go and find people avoiding tax, but actually it doesn’t achieve that and it causes, if you’re thinking very logically, a whole series of problems.”

  5. All of the banks in Russia are assigned to collect the names and financial details of Americans and send the information to the Russian government.
    This has been demanded by the 2010 Congress in order to improve security and order.
    There has been a large problem where Americans have been sending their money to RUssia, in order to evade taxes.
    I guess I fully understand the logic of the 2010 Congress now.
    http://www.1prime.biz/news/_Minister_Russia_to_agree_terms_of_joining_US_FATCA_soon/0/%7B2A52E271-81D8-4120-9A64-66A851E9C280%7D.uif?goback=%2Egde_3731046_member_241978767

  6. @MarkTwain, (and YogaGirl re your earlier very apt comment about the near limitless category of ‘US taxable persons’ and things;

    the article says …..”FATCA touches upon the interests of organizations, which carry out operations with monetary funds or other property related somehow to the U.S.”

    …”or other property related somehow to the U.S..”

    ‘Somehow related’

    Exactly the problem. And if so loosely defined now, additional fetters to come at US leisure as they develop in fertile FATCAnatic brains. If the US sees that FATCA does not achieve the extra revenue they wanted, then I wonder that they might continue to tweak it to claim more.

    At this point, the ‘somehow related’ is frequently only through our physical persons (defined as property of the US via citizenship) and our DNA (inherited citizenship status) as in many cases our assets and lives have NO US economic or financial connections whatsoever. Our assets are post-tax, generated and held outside the US. Now that some abroad have found their way through the IRS gauntlet and ‘come into compliance’, in subsequent years, it will become even clearer that the statistics that the Taxpayer Advocate cites in terms of returns filed from ‘abroad’ with zero US tax owed, will become larger and larger. For ex-greencard holders, the ‘somehow related’ is via an abandoned status that is no longer in force – but who the US will consider US taxpayers forever after until surrendered formally – even though they may have left decades ago and were never citizens.

    FATCA terms might as well skip all the verbiage and just say “because I said so”.

  7. @ badger
    “For ex-greencard holders, the ‘somehow related’ is via an abandoned status that is no longer in force – but who the US will consider US taxpayers forever after until surrendered formally – even though they may have left decades ago and were never citizens.”

    Well that, of course, is my case so the US government might say “because I say so” but I have decided to insist that “you’re not the boss of me”. I have rejected their power over me and if they don’t like it they’ll have to discuss that with the Canadian government. I don’t think the Canadian government will “extradite” me to the US and I will never go there voluntarily. I can only hope they don’t attach eagle talons to their drones and fly me, kicking and screaming, to “Mordor over the border”.

  8. Sophie is supposed to have an EU parliament FATCA hearing May 28th, it is supposed to be on her twitter feed. Also

    http://rebentisch.blogactiv.eu/2013/03/14/sophie-int-veld-criticises-us-draft-stage-interference/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter&utm_campaign=blogactiv

    1. No judgment of a court or tribunal and no decision of an administrative authority of a third country requiring a controller or processor to disclose personal data shall be recognized or be enforceable in any manner, without prejudice to a mutual assistance treaty or an international agreement in force between the requesting third country and the Union or a Member State.

    Of course the European Commission original proposal has to be viewed as a clarification in the context of unwanted practices the US Patriot Act and provoked strong reactions on the US side. The “42″ was reintroduced as Amendment 259 in the Civil Liberties Committee Draft.

  10. So, you have to wonder. Do any of these FCIC guys care one whit about the U.S. Person’s nightmare? http://lnkd.in/ghhjVq

    FATCA: A Change Manager’s Nightmare
    Every change manager asks themselves three basics questions:

    Where are we?
    Where do we want to be?
    How do we get there?

    The nightmare begins with ‘where are we?’

    This blog is limited to legal entity customers as opposed to individuals or what FATCA calls “natural persons”.

    In answering the first question metrics such as “how many clients do we have” should be available. In practice this basic question is hard to answer because there is not one golden source with one primary key. In reality there are several sources and fuzzy matching. One can also get lost in the question “what do you mean by client?” i.e. does that include subsidiaries? does it include SPVs? does it include sub funds?

    Lets simplify and assume that the answer to the last two questions is yes and that we know how many clients we have.

    The next questions under “where are we?” are:

    How many have we already classified as American? These are to be treated as US accounts.

    Of the rest:
    Can our search for US indicia be relied upon?
    How many clients have US indicia. These will have to be cured of US indicia if they are not American.
    What is the split of FFIs and NFFEs?
    Of the FFIs, what is the split between IGA and Non IGA countries? For Prima Facie FFIs in non IGA countries the deadline for FATCA CDD is six months after the effective date.
    Of the NFFE population do we have reliable NIACS or SIC codes? Where a client is an NFFE and a search for US indicia has been conducted and comes back negative then the FFI can use NIACS / SIC codes to classify the NFFE as excepted because it is in an active trade or business.

    Only when the Change Manager knows:

    The quantity and split of FFIs and NFFEs.
    The split by FFIs and NFFEs with US indicia
    The split of FFIs and NFFEs in IGA vs Non IGA jurisdictions
    How many NFFEs without US indicia have valid NAICS or SIC Codes
    can she/he know “where they are”.

    The Change Managers will want to know, as a matter of urgency, the volume of FFIs in Non IGA Countries because the Responsible Officer will attest that FATCA CDD has been conducted on that population by June 30, 2014.
    2 hours ago

  13. More than 250 local industry professionals were told “now is the time to take action in preparation for FATCA”, during KPMG’s second FATCA forum, held earlier this week at the Fairmont Hamilton Princess

    Comply, comply, comply…. The marketing message has trumped all other considerations.

  15. Apr 16: “Although Miller stated that the IRS Criminal Investigation unit (will) obtain(s) warrants for all emails, he did not discuss other forms of electronic communication such as text messages, instant messages, and direct messages on social media. Under the Fourth Amendment, a warrant should be required for those private communications as well” ………….
    http://www.aclu.org/blog/technology-and-liberty-national-security/irs-says-it-will-respect-4th-amendment-regard-email

    Looks like Steven Miller has been in the hot seat for awhile.

  18. @Just Me, have to love that phrase “cured of US indicia” – as others have said here on previous IBS threads, US citizenship is now like a disease to be cured or vaccinated against if you live outside the US.

  20. Selling their products in Toronto…

    Mr. Hutnyan of Trillium Software will be speaking at FATCA Compliance in Toronto CA. The #FATCA event will help organizations equip themselves to evaluate risk and meet the new regulatory challenges.

    FATCA Compliance canadianinstitute.com

    Get your FATCA compliance action plan underway. Learn what every FFI, including FATCA Partners, should do now to achieve optimal and cost-effective compliance with the final regulations. The unsurpassed Canadian and U.S….

  21. If only usindicia was as easy to cure as, say, chlamydia, with a simple round of antibiotics. 🙂

  25. First of all. Wrong link for the EU public hearings. This is correct.
    Begins 9:30AM EDT on the 28th
    http://www.europarl.europa.eu/ep-live/en/committees/video?event=20130528-1530-COMMITTEE-ECON

    SPBA Slams Switzerland’s ‘Back Door’ FATCA Plans
    by Ulrika Lomas, Tax-News.com, Brussels
    27 May 2013

    Looks like the US isn’t the only country where legislators try to slip something through hidden in another bill.

    The Swiss Private Bankers Association (SPBA) has highlighted its objections to certain aspects of the Swiss Federal Council’s bill, implementing the revised Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) recommendations, notably the definition of a punishable tax crime as a predicate to money laundering.

    While supporting in principle a policy of tax conformity, as well as plans to implement FATCA, the international standard in the fight against money laundering, the SPBA nevertheless warns that Switzerland must not profit from this legislative revision to introduce, “by the back door,” internal legislative reforms that are simply not required under the US FATCA legislation.

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