Not to steal these gals thunder, but wanted to post this as soon as I saw it this morning.
From Accounting Today…
I would only add one thing to this excellent piece. When they write about complexity, this new release from Treasury had not yet come out…
Correcting Amendments to the FATCA Regulations will be Released Today
I almost feel sorry for the FATCA administrators in the Compliance Complex trying to keep up with the layering of complexity. I have a feeling this will not be the only amendment that will be issued. What will happen when the OECD global GATCA is added to this and the natural conflicts that will occur? I doubt they will just take FATCA and all its regulations as the sole model for what they want. The complexity has just begun.
As Roger says, weighed down with all these regs, “Is FATCA really ever going to be able to lift its wings and fly?”
Please do steal the thunder girls! I’m exhausted. lol.
I just read your piece this morning. Wonderful piece and does a great job pointing out how far afield FATCA has gone. No one in their right mind would object to the U.S. looking for money being laundered off shore by criminals who live in the U.S. or that they find a way to do that. This however, is not that. This FATCA is something else entirely. Something extremely ominous for the U.S. image abroad and most of all for those being punished for simply not living there no matter how small their income or how little their ties to the U.S. may be.
The second issue as to correction. I hope it has some serious amendments that address the most arrogant abuses.
A very good article by Victoria and Lynne. I just hope that it is cited and picked up by other publications. Layer upon layer of complexity – but ‘damn the torpedoes full speed ahead’ says Treasury and Obama’ – it would be too much to every ask for some element of sanity to be proposed by the US government. Rather than for Treasury to affirmatively ask for Congress to amend an unfair and onerous law, they would prefer to keep trying to fit a square peg into a round hole.
@Atticus: the amendments just appear to be more of the same. Trying to plug every possible conceivable ‘hole’ to catch those tax cheating US Persons (domestic and abroad).
Yes Steve, you’re right. I was just looking over that document. I don’t know why I thought it would be anything other than that to begin with.
Thanks for posting, Just Me. Thanks, Lynne and Victoria, for another good read. Congratulations for your good work making it into Accounting Today.
Thanks Victoria and Lynne for making it clear what a klausterfokken FATCA really is.
@bubblebustin, you do have a way with words. “Klausterfokken” *laughing*
@AtticusinCanada
I must give credit where credit is due. I used to use the less urbane ‘clusterf*ck’, until someone here (sorry can’t recall who) made reference to a ‘klausterfokken’. According to the Urban Dictionary it is a “German compound word is used to create a deep and profound sense of cluster fuck.”
http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=klausterfokken
Great article, really concise and clear, and great to see you guys getting published in US media again!
My life takes some rather bizarre turns. I never in a gazillion years thought I would write an article from Canada with a woman in France for an American accounting journal.
My high school math and economics teachers would be hysterical with laughter if they knew I wrote for an accounting journal.
@Blaze, you are too modest. You are really good at this and so is Victoria. I’m astounded at the talent assembled here. Humbling! If you two can’t get their attention no one can. The way you put things makes it clear that there is nothing good or right about the way FATCA is going. It makes the way some U.S. publications write about how positive it is look supremely foolish.
@blaze
As I like to say, “whodathunkit”?
I’d still be minding my own business in Canada if it weren’t for this incursion. Keep up the good work everyone.
This is a superb piece.
Good job ladies! I’m waiting in anticipation for the next collaboration by you two!
Blaze & Victoria, Way to go! What a great job! What a Fantastic Piece!
Thank you for all you do!
Local NDP member wants to know more about FATCA. Replied to my message today and I directed him here. I am going to ask for a meeting. Thanks for the article girls!
@ Lynne and Victoria
All that focused, factual writing and all I can sputter out is THANK YOU! And danke schoen, bubblebustin, for giving me another word to add to my half dozen German vocabulary — “klausterfokken”. I wonder if FATCA’s jackboots will become so ridiculously large that the monster will trip, fall and die?
@Atticus, that’s great!
@White Kat, I just wrote to him requesting a meeting. He really did not know much about this but, was interested. I hope I get a chance to meet with him personally.
Great job!
Think about shorter articles for many avenues—compare your Word Count versus the typical Word Count of the Magazine. Pick a couple of the messages (there are so many points—-I have drowned my Congresspersons with my first letters).
Tailor to the audience: Accountants want to hear about accounting problems. Compliance Jocks want to hear about compliance problems. Human-rights want to hear about people problems.
Easier to give advice than to do things.
But then guess it wouldn’t hurt to try–I’ve never done it Before—but what the heck? How does one get connected with such places to get in an article?
@MarkTwain: That’s what we’ve been doing.
Victoria gets the credit for the foundation for this one. It came from a post Victoria had on Franco American Flophouse. I suggested she revise it and adapt it for another audience. We then began working together on it for a publication with a very long word count. Unfortunately, they didn’t accept it.
However, while we were working on Losing Its Way, we listened to Obama’s Simple Premise news conference (which was on Renouncecitizenship’s blog), which gave us the idea for The Hill article.
So, we wrote something for them and were accepted within hours of submitting it.
We revised and edited the Losing Its Way article from our original unaccepted one and submitted it to Accounting Today a couple of weeks ago. We didn’t hear back and were planning to talk this morning about revising it again to submit elsewhere.
I was stunned when @kyla4u tweeted it this morning. I e-mailed Victoria, but she had not seen my e-mail or the article when I called her.
We have some other ideas in the works.
Unfortunately, one which was accepted for publication in Canada a few weeks ago still hasn’t appeared and I’m losing hope that it will.
In terms of connecting, just do it. Write clearly, submit, stay within word count. Be prepared for rejection (Victoria and I both have more rejections than acceptances, but we keep plugging away).
I do have some professional writing experience, which has helped. I wrote a monthly column for 15 years for our local city newspaper and have written for a few specialized magazines and professional journals. However, I never thought I would be writing for either an accounting journal or a Washington D.C. congressional newspaper.
anybody’s here in London plan to go?
http://www.withholdingtaxcongress.com/uk/agenda-1/
Oh yeah, can’t begin to count the number of times I’ve been shot down. I’ve sent articles all over the place and so has Blaze. My ratio right now is about 10 to 1. 🙂
I was floored when Lynne called on the phone. I was in the middle of writing something else and hadn’t even looked at my email for hours. I think I broke Blaze’s eardrum when she gave me the news.
And I have to thank her again because I am a complete newbie when it comes to writing for someone other than the Flophouse (chez moi). Working with Blaze has been an education. Fun too – I never knew it could be so gratifying to write with someone else. It’s a whole different experience but I find that I really enjoy it.
What a wild ride this is. Oh and I got a job today too. 🙂
Congratulations Victoria on your new job! 🙂
Brockers near Ottawa south. Tornado spotted on the ground. As a former Oklahoman I will put on my Gary England voice and say “Go to the centre part of your house away from outside walls or to a basement, take shelter.” Warning is in effect, not a watch. Stay safe, Ottawa Brockers.