Transcript of the one and only Congressional hearing ever held on FATCA

I wanted to finally provide the transcript of the one and only Congressional hearing ever held on FATCA before it passed into law.

http://democrats.waysandmeans.house.gov/Hearings/transcript.aspx?NewsID=10411

Observations:

Even in 2009 there was significant opposition to the law

Congress really didn’t know what the hell they were voting on there were almost no witnesses invited other than from Treasury. ACA for example wasn’t invited to attend. Almost none of the committee members asked any relevant questions.

The public service of the US Treasury Department badly wanted this legislation however, by not informing Congress that much about it I suspect it will be public servants who will walk the plank when the you know what hits the fan.

29 thoughts on “Transcript of the one and only Congressional hearing ever held on FATCA”

@todundsteuer

You’ve motivated me to dig up a comment I made on taxprofblog in Dec last year, when this paper was announced. Here’s what I wrote:

“The author is visibly defensive about the damage his legislation is causing, yet remains unapologetic, and appears either unwilling or unable to grasp the full horror of what he has created. I count eleven occurrences of some form of the word “hope” in this paper. That pitches it somewhere around wishful thinking, and certainly far from than anything rigorously thought out. Like FATCA itself, this paper is worthless trash from beginning to end.”

Did I undersell it? 🙂

@Tim…going on internet silence for a while, (traveling) but entering a comment, so I get email notice of new comments and remember to come back here and read this thoroughly. You keep digging out great stuff that I learn so much from. You have been an invaluable resource for Isaac Brock, and I for one, really appreciate what you do.