Liberty and justice for all United States persons abroad

The Isaac Brock Society

Rand Paul re-iterates his intention to FILIBUSTER all tax treaties that may be used to implement FATCA

Posted on by Posted in Issues regarding US persons abroad 55 Comments

http://online.wsj.com/public/resources/documents/PaulLetter050714.pdf

“To be clear, I certainly do not condone tax cheats, but I can’t support a law that endangers regular foreign investment and punishes every American in pursuit of a few tax cheats,” he wrote. “Most importantly, I cannot support a bulk collection tax treaty that has complete disregard for the important protections provided to every American by the Fourth Amendment.”

http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2014/05/07/rand-paul-fights-tax-treaties-citing-privacy-concerns/

Bucking pressure from businesses and fellow lawmakers, Sen. Rand Paul says he will continue to oppose tax treaties that would let the Internal Revenue Service gather more information about Americans’ overseas financial accounts.

The move dims the outlook for a planned Senate vote on the treaties, while highlighting the Kentucky Republican’s contrarian streak. The treaties – including a significant one with Switzerland – enjoy widespread support among lawmakers of both parties. But Mr. Paul, who is preparing a 2016 presidential bid, believes they would encourage government snooping and erode Americans’ privacy rights.

 

 

55 thoughts on “Rand Paul re-iterates his intention to FILIBUSTER all tax treaties that may be used to implement FATCA”

  2. Brief exchange on the Swiss tax treaty in the Senate on Thursday.
    http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?r113:S22MY4-0012:/

    Senator Robert Menendez (D-NJ) spouting the usual garbage about how everyone with an account outside of the U.S. is “hiding money offshore”:

    Now the wages and U.S. bank account interests of Americans are both reported to the IRS. There is no reason why people with foreign bank accounts should be able to hide their money from the IRS in a way that average, hard-working Americans cannot. It boggles my mind that we are going to treat average, hard-working Americans in a different way than those who have the money to cheat and ultimately avoid their responsibility to our collective society, so we will continue to raise this issue.

    Paul in reply at least acknowledges the existence of Americans abroad, though most of his arguments are focused on the Homeland:

    As previously stated in the previous treaties, the information that was exchanged in the past under the current treaties had to show that they were for preventing tax fraud. The new treaty, though, is going to change the standard from looking for tax fraud–which seems to be what everybody is talking about–to saying that we will look for financial information that may be relevant. What we are doing is taking the standard down to something “may be relevant,” which could be a dragnet for getting everyone’s information. It will be a deterrent to foreign investors both in our country as well as in other countries. I think at the very least every American, whether at home or abroad, deserves the right to the fourth amendment protections guaranteed by the Constitution.

  3. @Eric

    I get the impression that most US lawmakers are unaware of CBT and as a result may think that Americans abroad have nothing to do with offshore tax evasion.

  4. bubblebustin and Eric,

    That US lawmakers are not aware of CBT wouldn’t surprise me in the least. No one of the journalists I asked said “Yes” and no one else when I made a point of asking each if they learned about citizenship-based taxation in their US schooling (well, one, but he knew because of his father — not from schooling). I know my US schooling failed me in that regard. Wonder if it is even yet included as must-know information on the US school curriculums, a requirement for graduation from high school — if it is so important and can cripple many individuals and families for failure to know? Is that by design? What about full disclosure for anyone seeking a US green card as they search for the American Dream?

  5. The Senate Foreign Relations Committee approved the eight unratified tax treaties yesterday while Sen. Rand Paul was absent. They can now to be sent to the Senate for ratification:

    “The U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Tuesday approved eight long-delayed international tax treaties, which had been held up for years because of one Republican senator’s objections, despite support from companies that want consistency in rules for how to do international business.

    The treaties are with Switzerland, Luxembourg, Hungary, Chile, Spain, Poland and Japan and the international convention on mutual assistance on tax matters.

    U.S. Senator Rand Paul objected to the agreements for privacy reasons, saying they would allow more inter-governmental sharing of financial information on citizens, which U.S. officials deny. Although the Republican is a member of the committee, he was not at the meeting where the pacts were approved by unanimous voice vote.

    It was not yet certain when the treaties would be considered by the 100-member U.S. Senate, where they need a two-thirds vote to be ratified.”

    http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/11/10/us-usa-tax-treaties-idUSKCN0SZ1YD20151110

Leave a comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *