I don’t see anything yet posted here on Lynne and Victoria’s latest published works so I’ll take the opportunity to pass it along so it can be quoted elsewhere, From Tax-News, Global Tax News: Lynne Swanson and Victoria Ferauge and their “FATCA Reality Check”.
Thanks once again, Victoria and Lynne.
I sent this to Contact Tax-News.com ( enquiries@tax-news.com ):
I cannot find any way to add comments, but I can’t let go by my responsibility to thank you for publishing: FATCA Reality Check, contributed by Lynne Swanson and Victoria Ferauge, October 09, 2013.
This is such an important issue. There needs to be a voice for the approximately 7 million US Persons Abroad as they do not have the numbers, the organization or the money behind them that the FATCA compliance industry does, ramped up to help steamroll people who are absolutely not criminals in its quest to find US tax evaders.
None of us (most of whom are regular middle-class residents and citizens of other countries and who pay our full taxes to the countries that give us our benefits – with Residence-Based Taxation) are against the purpose of FATCA. We are appalled that the US hangs onto Citizenship-Based Taxation, their cash cow reaping reward with outrageous penalties, not actual taxes owed to the US. That the US will not change to Residence-Based Taxation as that of the rest of the world (save Eritrea and the US) tells the US immoral story of FATCA. The tax evaders the US is looking for actually reside within the borders of the US and send their untaxed funds offshore. It is not rocket science to understand this.
Thank you for publishing “FATCA Reality Check” by Lynne Swanson and Victoria Ferauge and providing their voice for US Persons Abroad, many of whom do not yet know how they will be affected; i.e. “It can’t possibly affect me; I am not a tax evader.” Education and advocacy for these people is so needed. Thank you for doing your part.
Regards,
“calgary411″
Calgary, Alberta, Canada
I’m glad to see these two on a tear.
When it comes to the part FATCA plays in the renunciations it’s Stack’s word against ours, isn’t it? To believe him you’d have to conclude that those renouncing are somehow misguided. That worries me because it says that the US government believes we’re wrong, and the stick is sure to follow.
Lynne and Victoria have done it again!
Suggest everyone who can promote and pitch stories about Lynne and Victoria’s various articles to feature journalists like Margaret Wente, Conrad Black, etc. Magazines like Maclean’s, and even Chatelaine. There is a strong human interest angle in this: story of two people on different continents connecting over this issue and becoming political activists; power of the Internet to create these kinds of alliances; transformation of “non-legal-or-accounting-professionals” became go-to authorities on FATCA and citizenship issues issues, etc. The personal “Canadian citizen outrage” articles by Lynne are especially moving as well.
good one. hope it gets mentioned in other places, too
For someone just arriving at Brock here’s a list, so far, of Lynne and Victoria’s published articles:
July 28, 2013 The Hill (Lynne & Victoria)
http://thehill.com/blogs/congress-blog/foreign-policy/313775-fatca-simple-premise-gone-terribly-wrong
August 21, 2013 The Hill (Lynne)
http://thehill.com/blogs/congress-blog/foreign-policy/318061-nothing-against-the-united-states-until-now-
September 11, 2013 Accounting Today (Victoria & Lynne)
http://www.accountingtoday.com/news/FATCA-Losing-Way-68007-1.html
September 17, 2013 Financial Post (Lynne)
http://opinion.financialpost.com/2013/09/17/dual-canadian-american-citizens-we-are-not-tax-cheats/
September 19, 2013 The Money Guide (Lynne)
http://themoneyguide.ca/canadian-protection-irs-tax-penalty-issues/
September 25, 2013 The Money Guide (Lynne)
http://themoneyguide.ca/open-letter-finance-minister-jim-flaherty-fatca/
October 1, 2013 The Money Guide (Lynne)
http://themoneyguide.ca/open-letter-president-obama-us-treasury-secretary-jack-lew-irs-acting-commissioner-daniel-werfel-senator-carl-levin/
October 6, 2013 The Money Guide (Lynne)
http://themoneyguide.ca/fatca-protest-standing-canadian-rights-sovereignty/
October 6, 2013 Op Ed News (Lynne & Victoria)
http://www.opednews.com/articles/1/FATCA-We-Are-Not-Myths-by-Lynne-Swanson-and-Congress_Privacy_Privacy_Privacy-131006-69.html
October 9, 2013 Tax-News (Lynne & Victoria)
http://www.tax-news.com/articles/FATCA_Reality_Check__570962.html
I hope I didn’t miss any. We are so fortunate to have these two plucky and excellent writers getting out the truth about FATCA for us.
Thank you Em!
Em, I think I removed the italics — and I think I fixed your comment giving list of Lynne and Victoria’s published works. Thanks for that — very good having those all in one list.
@ calgary411
Thanks for the fix. Are there any others I might have missed? Lynne and Victoria’s output is very impressive.
Amazing!
Kudos and big thank yous!
@ calgary411
Good idea e-mailing Tax-News. I did too.
Thanks everyone. Tax-news is actually an intertnational tax publication based in London England.
It’s fabulous to have something published with more of a European focus.
We submitted another version of Reality Check to Accounting Today, but they wanted us to significantly “regiigger” it. Instead, we’re going to work on something else for them and we submitted this one to Tax-News.
We submittted it on Friday and were pleasantly surprised to see it published today.
The only one I think was missed Badger’s excellent list was the one in The Hill: Nothing Against U.S. Until Now. That one was about the difference in Ted Cruz renouncing Canadian citizenship compared to anyone trying to relinquish or renounce U.S. citizenship.
I think it was after that one that I told WhiteKat that neither Victoria nor I were finished. We still aren’t.
I’m on a bit of a hiatus right now as I’m in Pennsylvania with my 90 year old mother. No problems at the border. My sister was quite convinced I would be delayed or even denied entry because of the articles, but I think we all have a bit of FATCA fear on steroids instilled in us right now.
Oops! Sorry. It’s was Em’s excellent list.
@ Blaze
It’s there (August 21, 2013). Enjoy and cherish your visit with your mother. FEAR BEGONE!
I read an interesting article today. Click on – http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/10/10/us-ecb-china-swap-idUSBRE9990A220131010
China’s currency is now the 8th most traded in the world and has done a (albeit small) currency swap deal with the ECB. How can FATCA possibly work for the US if China doesn’t agree to do the same thing? FATCA will be a major disadvantage once the US’ reserve currency position is challenged within the next 10 years.
China is gunning for reserve currency status.
EXCELLENT!
Cant this article be published else where too?
Congratulations! You two have done it again. Thank you for all your hard work.
If it wasn’t for Blaze and Victoria’s erudite and eloquent articles explaining our positions on FATCA, I shudder to think of what could potentially be happening to expats and their spouses at this moment.
A billion times, thank you…Blaze and Victoria, for all you’re doing.
To repeat my off-line email remarks, Blaze and Victoria have again hit a superb home run! I am in awe of you two.
Another grand slam indeed!
Lynne & Victoria – fantastic work. You are able to write what so many of us think in an eloquent way which is relatively unemotional and can be understood by people unfamiliar with FATCA and CBT, which is why it is being published. A big thank you!!
Hearty thanks, Lynne and Victoria. You do a superb job expressing what needs to be said about these matters. Which is a service to all of us and highly appreciated.
Calgary 411 just posted some very interesting breaking news:
“US-France tax fraud pact falls victim to shutdown”
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5jVCLFrQKhB7FLmO2Q-ZIJ7PuqNJQ?docId=f77ab9cd-462a-497c-9235-d37485f6f65a
Does US Treasury’s inability to sign off on a unilateral and self-serving FATCA IGA of its own making – due to political and fiscal dysfunction – somehow warn the other party (France in this case) to reconsider the wisdom of entering into the agreement! Does anyone else see the irony in this?
The real howler is: “The French finance minister dismissed the possibility that the budget battle would force the United States into default for the first time in its history. ‘A US payment default would be so serious that it is improbable, even impossible,’ he said.”
Do these fools actually believe that just because events are ‘serious’ they are also ‘impossible’? What about the Titanic sinking, genocide in Rwanda, the Holocaust, nerve gas in Syria, the Nazi conquest of France. Those were deadly serious – and yet they still happened. This guy is just tossing words around without any thought to their meaning. Maybe sounding a bit flustered?
More folly. Just because US raises its debt ceiling does not guarantee that investors will continue to buy its debt. Does “poor credit risk” sound familiar? Finally, are US banks gearing up to ask customers if they were born in France?
The threat of default has begun to take its toll. To protect themselves, the Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing is raising collateral on short term US Treasury bond trades.
http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/b0abcde8-3190-11e3-817c-00144feab7de.html#axzz2hNfiZXgz
First US banks are deemed too big to fail.
Then US banks are deemed too big to prosecute.
Now,
“‘A US payment default would be so serious that it is improbable, even impossible,’ he said.””
The US: too big to fail and too big to prosecute.
@Em…
When I saw that article early this morning, it gave me pleasure to tweak Treasury with more Myth busting tweets. Thanks for doing the count down of their successes. I have bitly links for all of them, so probably should just keep tweeting them over and over and over and over. 🙂
Here they are…
July 28, 2013 The Hill (Lynne & Victoria)
FATCA: ‘Simple premise’ gone terribly wrong
http://bit.ly/179vUuk
August 21, 2013 The Hill (Lynne)
Nothing against the United States, until now
http://bit.ly/15seegB
September 11, 2013 Accounting Today (Victoria & Lynne)
FATCA Losing Its Way
http://bit.ly/19EfTTK
September 17, 2013 Financial Post (Lynne)
Dual Canadian-American citizens: We are not tax cheats
http://bit.ly/18wy1OY
September 19, 2013 The Money Guide (Lynne)
Canadian Protection from the IRS – Tax and Penalty Issues
http://bit.ly/18h4chx
September 25, 2013 The Money Guide (Lynne)
Canadian Protection from the IRS – Tax and Penalty Issues
http://bit.ly/15UOWs6
October 1, 2013 The Money Guide (Lynne)
OPEN LETTER TO PRESIDENT OBAMA, US TREASURY SECRETARY JACK LEW, IRS ACTING COMMISSIONER DANIEL WERFEL and SENATOR CARL LEVIN
http://bit.ly/18LMlPW
October 6, 2013 The Money Guide (Lynne)
FATCA Protest: Standing Up For Canadian Rights and Sovereignty
http://bit.ly/164fm7B
October 6, 2013 Op Ed News (Lynne & Victoria)
FATCA: We Are Not Myths
http://bit.ly/1c6XddV
October 9, 2013 Tax-News (Lynne & Victoria)
FATCA Reality Check
http://bit.ly/180vef7
@ Just Me
Thanks for covering Tweet Street. Bittly links rock! Lynne & Victoria’s Tax-News article and The Economist article are great rebuttals to Stack’s “Myth vs. FATCA” but you, PJM and other Brockers put out some awesome comments which helped too.
http://www.fsitaxposts.com/2013/09/25/myth-vs-fatca-truth-treasurys-effort-combat-offshore-tax-evasion/#comments