Australian Financial Services Council lobbies Washington for FATCA exemption

15 thoughts on “Australian Financial Services Council lobbies Washington for FATCA exemption”

1. Does anybody believe for even one minute that anybody in the US Congress is at all concerned that the Austrailians are upset about FATCA?  The Aussies need to understand that the US Congress has the authority to enact laws that obligate Australians to violate the laws of that country. I am sure they will head back to Austrailia with their tails between their legs when they are made aware of the facts of life as dictated by Washington

2. I think it may even give some certain members of congress pleasure to see foreign banks and governments shaking in their boots. Way to make more friends in the world, America!

3. This is really all about dragging the rest of the world down with the United States of Arrogance.

4. @all- the best thing that they can do is to pull their  capital OUT of the U.S. Refuse to buy anymore debt issuances of the U.S. Treasury and pull their money from the U.S. capital markets.

5. The US is looking for money, and congress will find any way it can to extract it from wherever they can, all the while selling the righteousness of it to its people. Expect more frivolous charges and examples being made of foreign banks in their pursuit, after all, thanks to Wall Street, all banks are bad guys in the eyes of Americans and deserve any punishment they get for standing in the way of their government is owed by Americans keeping money offshore. 

   I hate being made a pawn in this very evil game!

6. Thanks for making this a separate post. If you are interested, I posted, in comments, 3 other articles regarding this trip under the thread Ask your FATCA Questionshere and here.  I often put FATCA stories there for lack of a news thread on IBS.

   If they get exemptions for their Super (“Supra” the Aussie slang) government retirement accounts (ie deemed compliant) then IMHO they will rollover and accept the other provisions of FATCA.  If they don’t get this exemption, than this could be interesting. All their letters and testimony at the May 15th public hearings focused on getting their government sponsored retirement accounts ‘deemed compliant’.  

   I have tweeted a few of the Financial Firms in Australia who are concerned and suggested that if they don’t get the exemptions they want, they should kick the marines out of Darwin.  However, given the PMs. love affair with Obama , I don’t see that happening. 

   A tweet I received back indicated the concern of FATCA costs on Super.

   https://twitter.com/Lauren_SuperIQ/status/225404010490888192

   BTW, the only NZ objection to FATCA sent to Treasury by the NZ Ambassador, Michael Moore, dealt with pleas for exemptions for their Kiwi Savers too.  

   So, if in the negotiations over the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP), and to get the Kiwis and Australians to go along over over objections of their legal community, I could see this FATCA exemption being used as bargaining chit, but what do I know?  Most of those negotiations are secret.  Tim seems to have better perspectives on this than me. 

7. I’m starting to think that FATCA isn’t really going to happen. There is just no way that all banks in the world are going to register with the IRS, or that all countries in the world are going to make agreements with the US to share information. In my view, either the US will keep postponing the implementation deadlines indefinitely, or it will decide to implement the withholding and cause a worldwide financial disaster. China, Russia and the Arab countries are silent about FATCA, and they aren’t stupid. They are comfortably waiting for the US to return to its senses, or they have some plan B to remove their financial investments from the US at the last minute (disaster). I’m hoping for the first alternative. The show is not over until the FATCA lady sings.

8. *@Shadow Raider, I had not given it much thought up until now, but thinking about it you may well be right that Russia, China, Pakistan, Bahamas, Bermuda,  and probably a lot of other countries are unlikely to just “roll over” in response to the US having enacted an extraterrirorial law like FATCA. 

   If the US insists in enforcing it against their banks then they may well have some reprisals of their own up their sleeves.  Some of these countries do not even levy an income tax on their own residents but generate their tax revenues entirely through non-income taxes.  They certainly are not going to hve any interest whaatsovever with any kind of a reciprocity agreement with the US.

   Maybe one or more of them will introduce a UN resolution of their own condemning the US for unilateral action like this.  Can you imagine a “Condemn Eritrea” type of resolution on this being approved by the Security Council?

   Maybe something like that would get the attention of Washington.

9. US has veto power in the Security Council, no way it would even get near being passed.

10. I decided to put up a comment on this Wealth Professional blog too.  Might was well get some attention down under.  Since it did not immediately show up, I also took up their offer to have it emailed to them directly.  

    I am somewhat surprised it is taking them so long to respond. Both New Zealand and Australia have been amazingly placid in opposition to the incredible extra territorial overreach which FATCA is. It is totally unreported in the Australian media, unlike the secret TPP (Trans Pacific Partnership) talks which does get some coverage. FATCA impacts could be as dramatic and expensive to the Australian economy as TPP.  More so, for your financial Services industry. 

    I read the ABA letter in response to the FATCA draft regulations and the comments at the May 15th Public hearings. Did you? Here is a link if you are interested. http://bit.ly/LoUaUz  I would have thought that the ABA would have just remained in town and kept lobbying then, not waiting until the final regs are about to come out.

    Your PM has a love affair with Obama, so maybe she should be calling in the “Darwin U.S. Marine base” chit to force the IRS to back off Super funds. Send them packing, as you don’t need them. They just bring trouble anyway.

    That said, even if you get these Super funds ‘deemed compliant’, you still have the issue of your own Human Rights and Constitutional laws that will probably have to be amended if you are to search out and turnover all account data, for “U.S. Persons” including Green Card holders and accidental American babies born in the US, to the International Revenue Service (IRS). 

    Make no mistake about it, this search is for more than just U.S. Citizens resident in America. 

    The Canadian Bankers Association (CBA) is struggling with these issues in Canada. http://bit.ly/NA79m9 Maybe that is because there are so many dual US / Canadian citizens living in Canada, and you don’t have so many down under.  However, if you add up all those that could be deemed ‘U.S. persons’ living in Australia, there may be many more than you realize. You could have similar issues.  

    Understand, unlike Australia, America takes to itself the right to tax U.S. persons around the world no matter where they reside!  That includes Australians who have dual U.S. Citizenship living in Brisbane, Sydney or Whoop Whoop outback Australia..  If they are resident in Australia, America wants their taxes to help with the U.S. deficit. So taxing them in Australia is a direct transfer of financial wealth from Australia to the U.S. Treasury. Have you considered that?  

    What would America think if Australia tried to extract tax revenues out of Australians who are long time resident in America? You know the answer. They would not like it!! In fact, in the case of Eritrea, which has a 2% citizenship tax on Eritreans in America, they condemned it in an UN resolution! http://bit.ly/MN0CAc  Go figure!   

    I hope this helps you see that there is more to this FATCA story than just Super funds. I trust you will expand your coverage on the coming impacts to Australia Financial Industry. You are being asked to take on a big cost because America can not / will not construct a reasonable homeland tax regime and pay for its own profligate spending without reaching into the Australian treasury.  Why do you have to pay for this?  This is not “fair dinkum”!

    Thank you for your consideration and posting this comment.   

11. @WhoaIt’sSteve

    No, but it would get media attention, sorely lacking right now!

12. @WhoIt’sSteve and JustMe, re; “Maybe one or more of them will introduce a UN resolution of their own
    condemning the US for unilateral action like this.  Can you imagine a
    “Condemn Eritrea” type of resolution on this being approved by the
    Security Council?“

    Often just introducing a resolution, or a draft bill (like the egregious grandstanding we see from politicians in the US, and elsewhere) without a hope of getting it passed, generates attention and media coverage on the issue. Certainly works for some of the more bombastic US representatives.

13. The world is getting upside down. I never thought the US would do something that would make me agree with a UN resolution backed by Russia and China against the US.

14. In order for FATCA to come off as planned by the U.S., the rest of the world must “cave” to U.S. pressure. I don’t think it is going to happen. As a somewhat enlightened “homelander” said to me when told the U.S. was requiring foreign banks to comply with IRS demands …

    “Why would they?

    We are already at the point that FATCA has already been watered down to the extent that there are a number of “side deals”. Germany, U.K. etc.

    I still see Canada as he most important country. If Canada says no: then watch other countries follow Canada’s lead. As was the case the IRAQ war, FATCA will become a “coalition of the willing”.

15. @renouncecitizenship

    Canada is willing to listen to Canadian/US citizens, in fact encouraging our participation in Canada’s 2013 budget:

    https://isaacbrocksociety.ca/2012/07/20/more-correspondence-from-the-office-of-john-weston-mp-irs-is-a-budget-issue-for-the-government-of-canada-get-your-voice-heard-before-the-deadline-for-2013s-budget-submissions/