Thanks to Tim for mentioning this news on the Elizabeth May thread:
Rand Paul Blamed for Blocking FATCA
Washington, D.C. (May 2, 2013)
By Michael Cohn
The research and advocacy organization Global Financial Integrity is urging Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., to allow the Senate to vote on agreements negotiated by the Treasury Department with Switzerland, Luxembourg, Hungary and other countries to implement the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act, or FATCA, in an effort to ferret out tax evaders.
Senate rules allow any Senator to place a “hold” on legislation removing it from consideration, and Paul has placed holds on bills to implement every tax treaty negotiated since his election in 2010, according to GFI.
Here are links to some other related articles and previous posts:
US senator, lobby group in tax info disclosure pushback
Senator Paul stirs business ire over blocking of U.S. tax treaties (Businesses eager for treaties to win Senate approval)
Rand Paul is literally in the center of the FATCA shit storm.
By placing an obstacle in the way of the implementation of FATCA, he will be blocking both DATCA and GATCA.
Ron Paul’s supporters are hard core lovers of freedom and privacy. Rand’s slightly more hawkish views on foreign policy has cost him some of his father’s base. If he rolls over on FATCA, he will probably lose most of the rest. Without his father’s base, he will pretty much become just another senator from Kentucky.
My guess is that he will hold out as long as he can. But we’ll see…
Imagine how different we’d all feel if we had a similar procedure to stop legislation. Elizabeth May would be all we need!
If these are treaties that have freely been entered into by the non-U.S. signatories then where, oh where, are the penalties that will be imposed on the U.S.? What kind of unilateral action does FATCA allow to be taken by non-U.S. countries on U.S. holders of overseas assets? How does FATCA acknowledge the sovereignty of other political and taxing jurisdictions with regards to their U.S. person residents?
Far from setting an internantional standard for tax information exchange, FATCA’s only purpose is that it will serve U.S. interests and allow the U.S. to rob the treasuries of foreign nations while also violating their constitutions and privacy laws.
FATCA is just bad legislation and it is a pity that we see other countries emulating their bad big brother- the U.S.
Whatever the outcome, Rand Paul will single-handedly do more to put FATCA on the lips of mainstream media meat puppets than anyone else has managed so far. For that he must be commended.
We may be seeing a real turning-point about to emerge on this issue in terms of public awareness in the US. Unfortunately, it will likely only feed the flames of liberal vs. conservative, Democrat vs. Republican broken-record divisive politics. We must dig-in every chance we get now to make people understand that this isn’t just traditional left-right bullshit, but something much bigger that the US, and the world, somehow needs to rise above and deal with.
It’s kinda pathetic that this is our only damned “friend” left in congress.
I know, it’ difficult to explain to regular Canadians why you would support Rand Paul. Watch the Daily Show pick this up, not to our favour, I’m sure. I wonder about Fareed, though.
Oh yeah, and Bill Maher likes to ridicule Rand Paul. I’ve been looking for a reason to dislike Bill Maher. I think I’ve found it.
@ Fred and bubblebustin
The enemy of my enemy is my friend?
As a traditionally slightly left of centre kind of guy, I agree that Rand Paul makes a rather unlikely dance partner. However, in this climate, I think we can agree that anyone who can help move these issues into public consciousness deserves at least qualified support. The important point is that other voices, like ours, come into the picture to add more context and dimension. I think once Bill Maher understands what is happening to fellow lefties around the world then he too might change his tune a little.
@Deckard1138
I don’t know about that. Bill Maher drank enough of Obama’s koolaid to donate $1M to his campaign.
@bubblebustin
True that – must have been mighty tasty kool aid.
Elizabeth May is fighting with some homelander American on TWITTER right now.
https://twitter.com/ElizabethMay/with_replies
This is the right link. The “homelander” American is a big Obama supporter and big FATCA supporter.
@Tim
The guy is an idiot, meaning just an average homelander. We are the blind spot that most homeland Americans will never see.
Just a little surprised to see that E May actually responded back to him. E May is an elected Canadian official he is just a foreigner from the perspective of Ottawa.
@mark Twain
Wow, what a crock.
@ Deckard1138
Indeed. Now I need to disinfect my monitor; it’s dripping with BS.
I updated my previous comment for Accounting Today story. Last I looked, it had NOT shown up…
Got to hand it to these guys at GFI. What a brilliant article this attack on Rand Paul is. You have to appreciate how clever and misleading headline it is. The average person will read right by the reality of what is being blocked and why. In a very narrow sense, you could say it is technically correct.
“GFI Calls on U.S. Sen. Rand Paul to Drop Holds on FATCA Implementation Treaties”
Funny way to define a Tax Treaty as an ‘implementing’ document for a FATCA IGA agreement, but in many ways that is what it is. Without a TAX TREATY, there is no FATCA IGA.
He is blocking ‘implementing’ treaties, so to speak, as they need these actual TAX Treaties(which he is really blocking)to be able to implement the FATCA IGA model 1 agreement, or at least that is the Treasury approach. GFI (or did Treasury write this story?) have just used a deliberately deceptive headline and emphasis to spin this story in a way so journalist would spend time questioning it.
Notice later they call FATCA, correctly, as “FATCA agreements” (actually Competent Authority Executive Agreements not requiring any “advise and consent) however most people reading the article who don’t understand what is happening and will be left with a mis-impressionism that a FATCA Treaty is being held up. There is no such thing as a FATCA Treaty, only an FATCA IGA.
Also note these guys agenda, as they obviously want the domestic FATCA reciprocity provisions(DATCA)of the FATCA IGA to be forced on US financial institutions (USFIs), as this statement shows.
“The U.S. should not be a safe haven for the dirty money of foreign tax evaders, just as foreign financial institutions should not harbor the illicit assets of U.S. tax evaders.”
My read is that the financial industry and companies effected by FATCA want the IGA as an alternative to the entire FATCA 544 page rule book they are faced with complying with. They are really fearful of the 30% withholding, so I can see why they joining up with GIF to go after Rand Paul. His “Hold” on a few new Tax Treaties is forcing them to make a harder business decision related to FATCA compliance in those countries who do not have a Tax Treaty with the US.
With a FATCA IGA they think their problems of FATCA compliance are lessened, and ALL the other financial institutions under a countries IGA will be in the same boat where is no competitive advantage or disadvantage to any company that decides not to be FATCA compliant. If they only had the FATCA regulations to consider, it is a decision they could make, on their own, but don’t want to make it. They don’t want to chose between which countries laws to break, or see if the US can actually force the 30% withholding if they don’t comply. They would rather have the IGA government make it the decision for all of them. But, if there is no Tax Treaty in the first place, they can not have a FATCA IGA as an alternative to the FATCA regulations.
Additional benefit, is that the IGA strengthens the TBTF institutions as they can afford the IT cost of implementation at the expense of the smaller ones which are facing regulatory overload. It is crony capitalism at its best, using government regulations to subvert your competition and attacking those (like Rand Paul) that would force them make hard business decisions about compliance. At least that is my take.
Now, you might ask the inevitable question:
Why is Congress enacting legislation which the government is powerless to implement without first negotiating treaties with foreign governments? They really got the cart before the horse on FATCA.
Exactly, but as we know, implementation of FATCA via the IGA was an after thought never conceived of when the Hiring Act was approved in 2010. You can read the legislation all day, and you will find nothing about IGAs. NOTHING! Treasury made them up!
The IGA is the only way Treasury thought they had a practical chance of implementing FATCA as written by Congress. That was to force these unilateral cram downs (with vague reciprocity promises in Article 6) onto recalcitrant governments who do already have Tax Treaties.
They would market them as FATCA simplification, and the FFIS would lobby for acceptance, and the FATCA Compliance Industrial Complex (FCIC) would tell us all what good deals they are. This is also encouraging other countries to quickly sign TAX Treaties (now blocked by Rand Paul)to get a more favored nation status that a Tax Treaty allows and get to participate in the FATCA IGA model 1. Whoop de doo!
That said, I think the FATCAnatics must be pleased how the rest of the OECD has come to love FATCA as a model for their ‘Sons of FATCA”, and as a means of starting a movement towards a global GATCA of automatic data exchanges. As a result of this global trend, we may never be able to get the Genie back in the bottle, except by killing the domestic DATCA reciprocity in the USA. Of course Congress could stop it if they will, and the Florida and Texas Banking associations have launched a lawsuit to do help that along. http://bit.ly/10uiMmM
The House Republicans will never approve of a domestic FATCA which was buried in the Obama 2014 budget on page 202, but if the Dems get into power in the House in 2014, GAME OVER, and the world’s economy will suffer the consequences, but never mind.
These FATCA ideologues never consider the unintended consequences of their faith based belief that FATCA will stop offshore tax evasion. It will be as effective as the War on Drugs has been on stopping trafficking and drug consumption. IE, a failure! It will cost us all a lot for the every predictable result, but never mind. Don’t let a real cost vs benefit analysis of what they are doing get in the way of an ideologues good intention. They are creating more pavement for the road to hell. 🙂
A quick tweet…
No, There Are No #FATCA Treaties in the Senate via @CFandP http://bit.ly/ZDP6AZ @GFI_Tweets Stop attacking @SenRandPaul #StandwithRand
http://freedomandprosperity.org/2013/blog/no-there-are-no-fatca-treaties-in-the-senate/
The problem here is that here’s the current reality:
On one side, we have the dems. The small handful that are for improving shit in the US, because the majority have long since been corrupted.
On the other side, we have the GOP and their ilk. The only thing progressive about them is they are progressively morons on every level. And their policy of obstructing anything Big-O is tying to do, just so happens to work out for us in this one single instance.
Best to just ignore the US side of this and focus on your own local government to reject the US bullshit. Congress was bought and paid for long ago and you’re not the owners.
Fred – I agree with you. While we watch (every day) as the US government moves like a brainless beast to implement FATCA IBS political capital needs to be spent on getting Canada to say ‘no’. At a minimum Canadian citizens’ rights, as Canadian citizens whether or not ‘US Persons’ need to be protected by lobbying, media campaigns and likely litigation. Canada is uniquely situated to lead this resistance to bring FATCA to a middleground.
I was just over at the Democrat’s Abroad Facebook page to see if they have any comments about Rand Paul’s latest shenanigans. One wonders how far they’d go toeing the party line by attacking a Republican whose actions may be saving them from harm. There’s nothing there, but their latest post is about bullying: “Bullying – whatever sort – is unacceptable. Be kind to one another.”
It is heartwarming to see that bankers can catch more than US persons:
http://www.youtube.com/watch_popup?v=9hnbmml8fOY&hd=1
does anybody know the result of the filibuster_
A more accurate Article here, from The Hill
http://bit.ly/12GVu7Q
Mitchell, a senior fellow at Cato, a libertarian think tank, said he shared Paul’s concerns about the tax treaties, and also called FATCA “very destructive.”
But Mitchell added that Paul’s efforts could be for naught, at least when it comes to FATCA. “Rand Paul could hold up treaties from now until eternity, but that may not do anything about FATCA,” he said.
Read more: http://thehill.com/blogs/on-the-money/international-taxes/297741-libertarian-lawmaker-blocks-international-tax-treaties#ixzz2SSfj95kj
RT @taxpolblog Correcting the record 5 ways on the stories about Sen. Paul blocking “FATCA Treaties” http://bit.ly/15m8iY1 @GFI_Tweets