Although mentioned in a comment, this video is worth a post:
One lawyer believes that not all #americansabroad are tax cheats – interesting video: China, #FATCA and more live.wsj.com/video/law-targ…
— U.S. Citizen Abroad (@USCitizenAbroad) March 20, 2013
Wow, what a fucking hack.
The voluntary disclosure programs have “netted $5.5 B”. If he’s counted my money, we’re aren’t done yet!
It wasn’t that bad. At least the guy touched on the heart of the problem, which is that the reporting mechanisms are onerous b/c US tax laws are too complicated for the average expat to manage. He also explained that many people simply didn’t know about the reporting and weren’t tax evaders. And finally, he said that the people being pushed of the US ship are not the kind of people that the US should want to lose.
I think he overstated a bit – as does everyone in his industry and the USG – about the potential of FATCA and amnesty programs to generate revenue. It won’t be this steady yearly stream. It’s kind of like fracking. The gains in the beginning are fast, furious and impressive, but they are misleading b/c in short order the net drops off sharply and never picks up again.
As people overseas begin to understand the implications of US citizenship, the shedding of passports and greencards will pick up even more and really, unless the US economy picks up a lot, people will be disinclined to immigrate there and acquire greencards and citizenship.
One thing that these guys never do is talk about the number of countries that the US is actually courting with IGA’s versus the number they’ve netted. 5 countries (and I believe that some of those are places where the agreements haven’t been officially sanctioned by legislatures) is really pathetic and says a lot about how truly awful the FATCA is.
@a
I too get the impression that like our friend Alex Marino, many think that there will be an endless stream of US persons either renouncing citizenship or filing US taxes, as if the adversity of the situation won’t change behaviour. Wishful thinking on the part of the FATCA Compliance Complex, I’d say.
Also, fudging numbers seems to have become America’s favourite pastime.
Bubble, fudging stats and half-truth is a very American way of “debating” issues. More so in the past decade than ever, imo. But omission is still lying. At least that is what the sisters at my Catholic school used to tell us back in the day. Lies always catch up and I think that in this case, they have judging by the rising numbers of those shedding their US statuses.
@a
My impression is that the US usually digs in just before they cut and run.
@bubblebustin
Well they have to ‘finish the job’, right?
@a
It’s not really much of a ‘debate’ when they can make up some bullshit story, and then call you un-American for questioning it, like say, the war in Iraq.
Oh, but mhj, that IS what passes for “debate” in the US anymore. Name calling has been super effective since 9/11. The “un-American” tag was used to shut up countless who questioned, correctly, the need for the war in Iraq for instance.
Bubble, cut and run? Seems to me they just change tactics. Money grabbing is spreading like a pandemic among the world’s governments. I don’t see it going away. I think the problem the US faces with FATCA is that other countries are starting to realize there might be info and possible revenue in this for them, so they aren’t willing to sign up without that. I don’t think the US realized really that this could happen but I also don’t think the US realizes that it’s not the unilateral force it once was either.
@a
The US seems to have a pattern of cut and running when the price requires a larger commitment of resources than they planned on. Its inability to see or care about the unintended consequences of its actions is mind-boggling.
@Fred,
Maybe you didn’t watch the entire interview with Kurt Rademacher. I thought he was okay for a homelander, particularly during the second half (3:08 min mark) where he did a pretty good job explaining some of the difficulties of Americans abroad. He also spoke of the role Americans abroad play as unofficial ambassadors and that expats are the types of people the US should not want to lose.
Rademacher unfortunately failed to acknowledge that citizenship-based taxation is fundamentally wrong, but then again, most homelanders are still incapable of empathizing with the points of view of expats — who are pissed off about the burdens of double taxation, complicated form filing, and heavy penalties while receiving NOTHING in return.
http://live.wsj.com/video/law-targets-us-taxpayers-hiding-money-abroad/6CB43435-19D8-4ADA-A80C-920601D6D53E.html#!6CB43435-19D8-4ADA-A80C-920601D6D53E
@a
Exactly, and we can either be with them, or be with the ‘terrorists’.
Whatever. Since there are still plenty of idiots over there that still believe that the terrorists of 9/11 went in from Canada, then I guess I’m literally with the terrorists. Kind of ironic though, how I felt more terrorized there in the US than here.