I though some might be interested in watching the videos below of a recent FATCA information summit held at New York University in June. The host of the summit is David Rossenbloom who is a law partner of Mark Mathews who was recently in Ottawa. Beforewarned the videos are long and I have not at all watched close to all four hours but for your viewing pleasure below:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZEqDO0tjDrg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y-iBk51zaKI&feature=relmfu
In the second video it appears much of pressure coming in Europe to comply with FATCA is coming in fact from local bank supervisors such as the Dutch Central Bank basically arguing their legal powers to maintain the “safety and soundness” of the financial system trump privacy law. This unfortionately is what I suspected all along. Bank supervisors are unfortunately arrogant a**holes that are fairly immune to political and public pressure. I will say this and it will probably annoy some here but I have to say if Stephen Harper had the b*lls to fire Linda Keen, the career public servant in Canada in charge of nuclear reactor safety. If you have the b*lls to fire the person in charge of nuclear safety because you don’t like her views then you probably have the b*lls to fire the head of bank safety and soundness. I will also note Itai Greenberg comments in the first video that to have an international agreement to simply impose the FATCA regs isn’t much of an negotiation.
Its a tax-geek circle-jerk. All these idiots care about is how they can help the government fleece the taxpayers with less sqaulking. I like the typical blind statements like “FATCA will increase tax-morale”. These guys are ridiculous and beneath contempt.
But most of all I find the entire tax-industry abhorrent. How many trillions in lost productivity and manpower flushed down the toilets all over the planet so that corrupt and greedy governments can spew misery upon the people. These people allow themselves to be used as tools to support tyranny and foment class hatred.
The IRS has some distance to go to implement FATCA by the planned deadline of 1/1/2013. At this time, there are announced agreements or framework agreements with seven countries. Of the 10 countries with the largest US citizen populations, four have signed: UK, Germany, Italy and Spain. Countries in the top 10 without agreements include: Mexico, Canada, Philippines, Israel, Brazil and Australia. Another way to look at the implementation status is that with approximately 207 sovereign countries in the world, there are still 200 more agreements to reach.
As far behind as the FATCA agreement part of the project appears to be, working overtime, cancelling summer holidays and throwing more resources onto the project might not be enough to allow the IRS to reach the deadline. Losing momentum could, of course, cause further delays or the project to collapse. This is likely a critical period for the FATCA project team. I must wonder when the IRS will be announcing an implementation delay until 1/1/2014.
I just posted this link on another thread, but I will post it here as well. It looks like Taiwan Government Wants To Sign An Agreement With U.S. For FATCA.
One by one, governments seem to be falling in line. I hope Canada continues to hold out.
@All
One impression I did get out of it is I don’t really see Jesse Eggert as “decision maker” in the way that Jim Flaherty or Wayne Wouters are decision makers. My sense is to the extent there negotiations going on between Canada and the US they happening between Flaherty and Geithner and the White House. I don’t see Flaherty dealing with someone like Jesse Eggert.
@Tim…
Oh groan… I am trying to decide, do I have enough energy to watch 4 hours of FFF, Fanatic FATCA Flatulence? I am beginning to like Confederate H comments more and more… LOL
Blaze posted it else where but I see that the FATCA Compliance Complex (FCC) has now come up with an accreditation process so you can get a certificate to frame and hang on your walls as proof you are good at dobbing US persons in.
Next, some University will begin offering Doctorates in FATCA studies.
Then there will be the annual FATCA award ceremonies where a golden FATCAT figurine will become a “must envied” mantle idol for CEOs of Big Accounting Firms.
Final process of full society acceptance will be when the pop culture masses begin lining up for FATCA tattoos as the newest cool rage and more popular than Corporate Tattoos.
At that point, we will know society has totally gone nuts and the “end times are here” I should have paid attention to my bible study classes in my youth. I am sure all of this is foretold in Revelations somewhere and it involves the Mark of the Beast and the Antichrist…. LOL
Oh… Thanks for the Links Tim… I guess I have something to keep me occupied over the weekend. 🙂
@JustMe
The first video is far better than the second(The sound on the second is kind of lousy and the mostly European speakers are pretty boring).
The key thing is you get see in living color who Jesse Eggert(as in Jesse Eggert whom all those comment letters are addressed to) and Itai Greenberg really are.
There is also podcast that I thought was pretty good done by the guy that ran the seminar David Rosenbloom.
http://ecmapps.law.nyu.edu/webassets/groups/public/@nyu_law_website__news__media/documents/multimedia/ecm_pro_073147.mp3
@Tim…
thnx
“How many trillions in productivity are lost…”
Americans spend over 6.1 billions hours each year just on tax compliance alone. http://www.forbes.com/sites/janetnovack/2011/01/05/tax-waste-6-1-billion-hours-spent-complying-with-federal-tax-code/ Just imagine what humanity could achieve with 6.1 BILLION hours directed toward productive pursuits each year instead. Thanks goes to Nina Olsen, again, for this info.
@Michael – no surprise there. The United States ranks 72nd in the world for “ease of paying taxes”, neck and neck with Djibouti and Azerbaijan.
http://www.doingbusiness.org/rankings
Note that this is a measure of the difficulty involved in figuring out your taxes, not of how much of your income goes to pay them. Denmark for example ranks #14. I also find it highly amusing that the U.S. ends up ranked #4 on the overall Ease of Doing Business score, even though every single subcomponent of that score is below #4, in some cases very far below — except for “Ease of Getting Credit”. Er yes, a bit too easy it seems to have been …
@Michael;
re: “Americans spend over 6.1 billions hours each year just on tax compliance alone” – and Nina Olson has noted before, that the returns and reporting for those ‘abroad’, not only usually doesn’t result in any actual US tax owing, but is vastly more complex, more time consuming, more incomprehensible, and more costly to get assistance with than the returns of those inside the US. She underscores in her report to Congress that this is a significant and growing problem for ‘international taxpayers’ – those of us ‘abroad’. Not that Shulman or Geithner give a fig – though one (Geithner – made errors eventually excused by the ‘complexity’ of the US tax code http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/15/opinion/15thu1.html?_r=2&ref=opinion http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/politics/2008630440_taxqanda15.html http://taxprof.typepad.com/taxprof_blog/2009/01/more-fallout-from.html ) and the other acknowledges that he finds it too complex to do his own taxes himself (http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/75119-irs-commissioner-doesnt-file-his-own-taxes ).
@Just Me
The Cooley Law School in Michigan is apparently starting an LL.M. program (Masters in Law) with a specialization in – are you ready for this – “Homeland Security”.
I am certain that it won’t be long before one could get an LL.M in FATCA studies.
@renounceuscitizenship
Truth stranger than fiction. BTW, its it only me that has an uncomfortable relationship with the term “Homeland Security”. When did “Homeland” first show up in the American Lexicon? I don’t remember ever hearing it in my entire life until sometime after 9/11. Something about the term Homeland Security gives me the willies. Is it just me?
@JustMe, me too. Any tool can be used/misused in multiple ways – so we see how laws theoretically made for one purpose are turned against those they were meant to protect – and any checks and balances are constantly undermined – if they exist at all. And how US politicians offer petty and vindictive rather than well-considered reasons for some of the legislation they introduce. No concern for ‘unintended consequences’, or for justice, or for ethics, or for resolving any inherent contradictions that arise as a result.
I’d really like to know how often these laws have actually ‘protected’ those within, rather than been used against them. Power corrupts, ‘might makes right’, and ‘the end justifies the means’ is what I see happening.
@ JustMe, First I ever heard the term “Homeland” in the American Lexicon was right after 9/11 when Pres Bush announced he was creating a Dept of Homeland Security/appointing a Director of Homeland Security, seems like it just was a few days after 9/11.
@JustMe
Interesting question, I thought I knew the answer, but just wanted to check something first. So, did the following search: “origin of the word homeland”. Here is what turned up:
https://www.google.ca/#hl=en&tbo=d&sclient=psy-ab&q=origin+of+the+term+homeland&oq=origin+of+the+term+homeland&gs_l=hp.1.0.0i30l2.2643.11397.0.14034.41.29.7.4.4.2.294.4750.7j13j9.29.0.les%3B..0.0…1c.1.0fGP7TnUi4Q&pbx=1&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.r_qf.&fp=698e35e18b75bc01&bpcl=39650382&biw=1440&bih=700
Just looked at few of these, but this article is very well thought out and interesting:
http://www.hsaj.org/?fullarticle=4.2.1..
It does seem to me to be a term that is used to promote the mindless submission to authority.
Here are results of the search of “etymology of the word homeland”.
https://www.google.ca/#hl=en&sugexp=les%3B&gs_nf=3&gs_rn=0&gs_ri=hp&cp=30&gs_id=es&xhr=t&q=etymology+of+the+word+homeland&pf=p&tbo=d&sclient=psy-ab&oq=etymology+of+the+word+homeland&gs_l=&pbx=1&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.r_qf.&fp=698e35e18b75bc01&bpcl=39650382&biw=1440&bih=700
A reference to Germany in the 1930s appears.
Third search: what is the word homeland in German?
https://www.google.ca/#hl=en&sugexp=les%3B&gs_nf=3&gs_rn=0&gs_ri=hp&cp=36&gs_id=2tl&xhr=t&q=what+is+the+word+homeland+in+German&pf=p&sclient=psy-ab&oq=what+is+the+word+homeland+in+German%3F&gs_l=&pbx=1&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.r_qf.&fp=698e35e18b75bc01&bpcl=39650382&biw=1440&bih=700
The word is “heimat” is German translation.
Commentary on this:
http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/kausfiles_special/2002/06/the_trouble_with_homeland.html
Note the following excerpt from this:
1) It’s Un-American: “Homeland,” as Noonan notes, isn’t
a word Americans have been used to using. It’s word Germans have been
used to using. “Heimat,” a common German word, means home — and not
home as in “home and hearth” either (that’s “heim”). “Heimat” means
“home” as in a place or nation that’s home. “Heimatland” is the literal
analog of “homeland,” as I understand it. It’s not specifically a Nazi
word — it’s a general patriotic and sentimental word. It was used
during World War I, for example. My mother, who was born in Germany but
fled at age 10, can sing from memory a pre-Hitler song with “Heimatland”
in it. Still, Nazi or not, the word is uncomfortably Teutonic-sounding.
(And you don’t think the Nazis appropriated it?) My raw sentiments are
these: I’m an American, not a German. My father fought in a bloody war
so I wouldn’t have to be a German. Why is the Bush administration
telling me I need to be German now?
@Renounce…
Re “It does seem to me to be a term that is used to promote the mindless submission to authority.”
I have thought so too. I don’t like it. It rubbed me wrong the first time I heard it.
Thanks for the research.
Here is one I found interesting…
http://www.spectacle.org/1201/bartlett.html