Goat Rodeo:
A chaotic situation, often one that involves several people [or organizations], each with a different agenda/vision/perception of what’s going on; a situation that is very difficult, despite energy and efforts, to instill any sense or order into.
I don’t think there’s a much more apt expression for what is happening right now in the larger FATCA / FBAR / CBT universe. The calm-before-the-storm waiting game of the last few years is now clearly giving way to frenzied activity and veritable verbal warfare across multiple organizations and web sites around the globe. The big-picture dots of this reality have not yet been fully connected into a single post and thread, so that’s why I’m starting this one.
In no particular order, here are some of the latest developments to consider:
1. The ADCS summary trial is poised to begin next Tuesday, August 4th. Even now, the Canadian Government is wheeling out their propaganda machine to fight our lawsuit in the court of public opinion as well as in the Federal Court in Vancouver. One of the first targets of their inevitable smear campaign is our legal counsel, Joe Arvay, via a Conservative Party soapbox piece published in today’s Globe and Mail. And, as I write this, news that the Canadian federal government, “…may seek an adjournment of the summary trial scheduled to be heard on August 4-5,” as reported in the ADCS thread.
2. Mirroring the Canadian Charter Challenge is last week’s filing of the James Bopp / Republicans Overseas Action FATCA lawsuit whose seven plaintiffs include Rand Paul and Stephen Kish.
3. Republicans Overseas reports on the US Federal government response to their motion to expedite a Preliminary Injunction:
On July 22, Republicans Overseas Action and the seven Plaintiffs asked the District Court to expedite the consideration of the request for a preliminary injunction to give the Court adequate time decide the matter before some of Plaintiffs’ sensitive account information is reported to the IRS at the end of September. The government’s response is to say that shortening its response time would be too burdensome and that it needs even more time to respond. Normally, they would have 21 days to respond, and we’ve only asked to have that time shortened by a week. The federal government instead has asked the Court to delay the suit and give them 60 days to respond to Plaintiffs’ request for a preliminary injunction—three times the amount of time to which it would normally be entitled! The truth is that the Plaintiffs are the ones playing catch up in this case. The government has had nearly five years to consider the constitutional underpinnings of FATCA. They should not be allowed to complain now that they need more time to understand it when American citizens’ constitutional rights are being pushed aside.
4. Democrats Abroad has published a couple of trash-talk pieces here and here condemning the Bopp/RO suit. So far, every one of the 22 comments on the DA Switzerland piece has been uniformly opposed to DA’s positions on FATCA and Same Country Safe Harbor (SCSH), which has also been referred to as SCE (Same Country Exception).
5. Democrats Abroad has doubled-down on its SCSH campaign by re-igniting its FATCA Reform 1000 letters sign-on campaign, apparently completely ignoring the frustration of its dwindling constituency, as exemplified by one of the comments:
Most of us will not support this. Same country exemption is a diversion from the issue. It will enable you to try and tell people that you have done something. 90% of us see right through this and want nothing to do with this. Full repeal of FATCA and CBT is what needs to be done. Anything else is a distraction. Time for the democrats to join the rest of the world and use the world standard tax practice of residence based taxation (RBT). Why does the party of “progress” want to hold onto an outdated, civil war era tax policy that all other countries have abandoned?
6. Republicans Overseas is also pushing back on SCSH and the letter writing campaign:
By delaying the Motion for Preliminary Injunction, it gives DA time to push for the Same Country Safe Harbor (SCSH) exemption
DA is asking expats to write 1,000 letter to Congress to support SCSH by pressuring Treasury Secretary Lacob Lew and IRS Commissioner John Koskinen to selectively enforce FATCA based on expats’ accounts in one foreign country or more than one foreign country. DA knows better than that. This is lawlessness because neither Secretary Lew nor Commissioner Koskinen have the constitutional authority to amend or selectively enforce FATCA without a vote in Congress to amend the law.
7. Meanwhile, other organizations have apparently chosen to hitch their wagons to the increasingly-maligned Safe Harbor campaign, including FAWCO (Federation of American Women’s Clubs Overseas) and AARO (Association of Americans Resident Overseas), though the latter has posted a position paper calling for the replacement of CBT with RBT. American Citizens Abroad has remained rather low-key, focussing on its own, rather convoluted RBT proposal and partnering with the University of Nevada via its ACA Global Foundation on a research study about the effects of FATCA on American citizens living abroad. Other groups, such as American Expatriates, appear to be inundated by a confusing and often contradictory array of opinions from across the political spectrum, though the same thing can often be said of IBS.
8. The Trump factor. Will his brand of demagoguery help or hurt our cause? Here is a quote from his most recent advertorial for his own book:
America has become the world’s “dumping ground” for everyone else’s problems. A “whipping boy” for other countries as we sink further and further into the debt of no return.
Trump warns of so-called leaders willingly giving our jobs to foreign hands and further crippling the economy. Literally taking future opportunities from our children and grandchildren.
Meanwhile those same leaders feed America’s looming debt beast — an $18 trillion tab — with foreign aid and terrible negotiations.
And what then do we get for extending our wealth to help a legion of other countries? Lack of respect. We’re the “laughingstock” of the world.
These are just a few examples of how fragmented and confusing the landscape has become, and just how far away US Persons are from achieving any kind of consensus about how best to fight back against FATCA and CBT. The dominant “camps” now emerging are, predictably, identifiable largely along traditional party lines, but with some important exceptions. On one hand, “Safe Harbor” has crystallized into the Democrats singular take-it-or-leave-it proposition. On the other hand are the lawsuits in both the US and Canada, initiated by an increasingly diverse mix of Republicans, disaffected Democrats and untold numbers of other supporters who have no allegiance to any US party. In the case of Canada, our battle is dishearteningly with our own Canadian government, which has lowered itself to becoming a mere proxy for the US. Nevertheless, when it comes to the issues of FATCA, FBAR and CBT, it would appear that the most dominant fault line now starkly divides an increasingly out-of-touch and disingenuous Democratic Party with, literally, everyone else on the planet.
@Victoria,
I’ve often wondered how you can seem so optimistic and rational at times. Now I understand it is a matter of survival. Thanks for sharing.
It is very easy to wallow in anger and depression. As the sage philosopher John Lydon tells us, “Anger is an energy” — and as we all know, energy can be put to productive use if carefully managed, but when allowed to run away can cause destructive results. The further one allows the control rods to be retracted, the more careful one has to be to make sure the cooling water level doesn’t fall below the tops of the fuel rods. A delicate and risky balance, and your posts often encourage me to push the control rods in a bit further and moderate the reaction. I still have more work to do on that feedback loop.
@Deckard, I could just be sensitive, and no I have had not had a drop of alcohol today (yet), but that comment to Bubbles about herding cats, along with reference to my idiot behaviour a couple nights ago (and no doubt on other occasions) was hurtful.
Thanks for that.
Now, I don’t think it is too late to crack open a bottle. This time I will be sure,that I don’t come and post here.
Thank you all so much for your understanding and for your support. The person I was when I drank and before I hit my bottom is somebody I don’t ever want to be again. I wasn’t honest back then. Or brave. The opposite in fact. That puts me in a very poor place from which to criticize ANYONE. Thankfully I have an entire community of people in my life who explain this fact to me (kindly but firmly) on a regular basis. 🙂
Yes, Brock is a place where people cut each other a lot of slack, help each other out, support each other. The work done here is so important but I think it’s the community that means the most. To be a place where we can talk about how we feel is the greatest service of all.
Oh, and Foo, that is one hell of an analogy. You got it. That’s a darn near perfect description of the situation.
@Deckhard, re; “.“Members of Congress do not get the message no matter how much information they are provided.”..”
The DA don’t even comment on the fact that those without a US phone number would be blocked from commenting – it must seem NORMAL for them.
Want a laugh, this is a new one from the Whitehouse:
https://medium.com/@Goldman44/how-we-re-changing-the-way-we-respond-to-petitions-74ed0ffd1d77
Follow @WeThePeople.
Here’s who’s taking questions today:
Senior Advisor Valerie Jarrett on @VJ44: 11:30am-12pm
U.S. Chief Data Scientist DJ Patil on @DJ44: 12pm-12:30pm
Cori Zarek, Senior Advisor to the CTO for Open Government, on @OpenGov 1pm-1:30pm
@TheIranDeal from 1:30pm-2pm
Council of Economic Advisers Chairman Jason Furman on @CEAChair from 2pm-2:30pm
Chief Digital Officer Jason Goldman on @Goldman44 and Director of Digital Content Lindsay Holst on @Holst44 from 3:30pm-4pm
The White House Facebook page: Ongoing throughout the day
Here’s the newest gimmick from the WhiteHouse:
It says:
“We the PEOPLE. The White House is Open for Questions. Follow @WeThePeople and ask your questions using #WeThePeople. We’ll start answering on Tuesday, July 28, at 11:30am ET.
@WhiteKat
Applying foo’s wise counsel to other spheres of life, I will maintain a healthy surplus of cooling water around my control rods to assure that my reply remains in as non-critical a state as current technology allows:
1. The goats and cat herding mashup image was merely a continuation of a delightfully innocuous theme that was established in this earlier comment by Bubblebustin:
Bubblebustin says
July 28, 2015 at 12:30 pm
The imagery of goats penned up in a corral butting heads with each other is quite funny. Also funny is imagining trying to get Americans abroad to be of one mind – like herding cats.
To which I replied:
Deckard1138 says
July 28, 2015 at 1:20 pm
Ok, Bubblebustin, here’s a version especially for you: [a very colourful image of cats at a goat rodeo which I welcome you to examine at your leisure by scrolling quite a ways upward]
Tonight’s sophomore performance of silly cat-herding visual references was simply one of those time and space synchronicities that our puckishly absurd universe is famous for. It wasn’t at all about you.
2. Regarding this extremely insensitive paragraph:
You are absolutely correct that I was thinking about you – as I was thinking about myself – as I was thinking about Victoria – as I was thinking about countless others who have either driven a mouse and keyboard while under the influence, or who have struggled mightily inside to resist the temptation. Bottom line: it wasn’t all about you.
Summary: it wasn’t at all about you + it wasn’t all about you = it really wasn’t all about you – and it still isn’t.
Good night all.
@Deckard, ooops….sorry for the misunderstanding that lead to my hurt feelings….my bad.
I’m with Victoria, though I can’t express it as vigorously or as eloquently.
I’m not sweating at all about the lack of press coverage or general public discourse for both the ADCS and Bopp lawsuits. Public opinion theoretically should not matter in a court proceeding. And we all know that public opinion, in the USA at least, would be overwhelmingly against us “rich tax cheats” and the “right wing nut” Rand Paul and the “Citizens United villain” Jim Bopp. Much better, in my opinion, if both lawsuits proceed under the radar, with judges and juries swayed by legal arguments, not shrill newspaper articles or people with placards. Let the “fair share” homelanders scream after the IGAs are struck down and after FATCA is deemed unconstitutional. We’re in much better fighting position inside the court of public opinion if we’ve already grabbed a few victories in the courts.
As for whether SCE could undermine the lawsuits…well, I think that is 99.9 percent of DA’s sudden hurry in getting SCE put into effect now. Yet while SCE might weaken some of the arguments about FATCA’s negative consequences on Canadian US persons, it doesn’t affect the larger argument about the illegitimacy of the IGA itself. Same goes for the Bopp lawsuit, With or without SCE, FATCA clearly violates the US Constitution on a number of counts. I mean, if a US state had allowed gay marriage only for those who could prove 5 years residence in the state (and full state tax compliance) and banned it for all others, would it have changed the outcome of the recent Supreme Court decision? I doubt it.
So, while what DA is doing is obnoxious, cynical, and insincere, and makes our blood pressure rise, to me it’s little more than a fly in the ointment.
@Barbara I get the impression that the Bopp suit is already funded. ADCS on the other hand is not. Publicity is important for the ADCS suit to help draw in potential donors and funding.
JC, I’m not saying we should not be looking for publicity, especially for fundraising, but we also shouldn’t despair that lack of press traction is a bad omen in regard to the cases themselves.
For what it’s worth, I did my best to influence a Canadian financial journalist in Toronto, whom I’ve known personally for many years, to cover the ADCS case, and even he–a financial journalist who has lived and worked abroad (though he has no US taint)–responded with a big yawn. Infuriating.
@Barbara,
In analogy to the same-sex marriage, SCE might be kind of like domestic partnership. The same-sex marriage movement started out with state-by-state lawsuits, which, while having some successes on state constitutional grounds, were then sometimes undercut by state legislatures that offered domestic partnerships as a half-measure — offering only some of the same rights as marriage, and only in a geographically limited area. This did not, as hoped by the politicians, make the marriage equality issue go away, but rather spurred it on, as the half-measures served to raise awareness of the fairness issues involved.
Half way measures are just that – half way. No one achieves their goal.
…”But the same country exception would be a middle ground that would ease the burden on Americans living overseas while continuing to focus primarily on Americans living in the U.S. who maintain financial accounts overseas.”
http://blogs.wsj.com/expat/2015/07/28/fatca-relief-coming-for-u-s-expats-via-same-country-exception-opinion/
Some have said that DA and others don’t support the FATCA repeal effort because they actually believe that FATCA is constitutional. I don’t agree. I believe that many who want to undermine the Bopp effort fear that it is in fact unconstitutional, which makes their efforts all the more sinister when they are willing to throw citizens under the bus for a greater agenda.
@Bubblebustin, I think you’re right and they do fear FATCA might be struck down on one or more counts.
This is a party that has sold FATCA as “a necessary tool in the fight against tax evasion”. When I talk to my progressive friends and family back in the PNW (US), they don’t see an alternative: “But how will we catch those rich tax evaders who aren’t paying their fair share?”
If the Democrats turn around now and make common cause with the Republicans to bring FATCA down, there is going be such a howling, stomping of feet, rending of hair by progressives AND a lot of confusion on the part of the rest. What? Now you’re telling us: “Oopsie! Our bad. FATCA is a terrible law that WE passed (and took credit for) but we now realize what a terrible mistake it was and we will join the other party (the one we constantly accuse of coddling the rich) to right this wrong.”
When pigs fly. 🙂
” “But how will we catch those rich tax evaders who aren’t paying their fair share?””
They do not exist, they are a myth.
And for those that owe any tax, the cost to get the tax is greater than the tax itself.
It’s disheartening to see the National Tax Advocate show her support for SCSH, Victoria. A lot of Americans will put faith in her judgment, unfortunately.
“But how will we catch those rich tax evaders who aren’t paying their fair share?”
This one always gets me.
“That it is better 100 guilty Persons should escape than that one innocent Person should suffer, is a Maxim that has been long and generally approved.” — Benjamin Franklin, 1785
“It is better that 100 innocent Persons should suffer than that one guilty tax-evader should escape.” — US Congress, 2010-2015
You’ve come a long way, baby.
@George, Oh the lies told in the service of a larger “truth”, the “big picture”, the “cause”. It is very very hard for any one person to admit that he or she might be wrong. Even harder for a group of like-minded people who think they are on the “right” side of things. And if one really believes that that there will be dire consequences for honesty (losing an election for example) then that is all the justification one needs to keep the lie alive.
I think that the old maxim about “speaking truth to power” is two words too long. 🙂
@Bubblebustin, I wouldn’t worry about it too much. Most of my friends and family in the US have no idea that there is such a thing as a National Taxpayer Advocate.
I say “Nina Olson”; they say “Who’s that”. 🙂
@Victoria “When I talk to my progressive friends and family back in the PNW (US), they don’t see an alternative: ‘But how will we catch those rich tax evaders who aren’t paying their fair share?’”
A good analogy for chasing tax cheats? Once upon a time we chased crop pests with DDT.
When the damage eventually was proven to outweigh the benefits, DDT got pulled.
It’s coming for FATCA.
@bubblebustin “The illegal we do immediately. The unconstitutional takes a little longer.” (Henry Kissinger)
US lawmakers don’t listen to the NTA anyway…
“”“But how will we catch those rich tax evaders who aren’t paying their fair share?”””
“They do not exist, they are a myth.”
Marc Rich exists. The 1% is my estimate, it’s probably not really 1%, but they exist. When homelanders lump us in with those rich tax evaders, they exist.
“It’s disheartening to see the National Tax Advocate show her support for SCSH”
Oh no, did she really? So for once in a lifetime Congress and courts and IRS are going to listen to her?
For anyone who hasn’t renounced yet and doesn’t believe they’re doomed, take notice, you’re doomed.
You’re right, Norman. As long as there have been taxes, there have been tax evaders. I remember reading some research by the ATO (Australian Tax Office) and they pointed to the self-employed, the independant consultants, the small business owner, any work that could be paid via cash like waitressing as people likely to hide income. Well that sounds pretty obvious doesn’t it? In France it was everywhere when I purchased services: doctors, nurses, lawyers, plumbers, second-language teachers, translators. Two doctors and one lawyer I consulted had one fee if I paid in cash and a higher fee if I wanted to write a check or pay by credit card. No one was particularly shy about it, or worried about getting caught.
And every time I meet a French who complains about the Greeks. “They don’t pay their taxes,” is the cry. “Well, from what I’ve seen, neither do you,” I snort. 🙂
And it seemed to me that most of the time shipping money offshore to evade taxes is completely unnecessary. The very well to do have lawyers for such things – tax avoidance, they call it. And all the way down the socioeconomic scale smart, creative, entrepreneurial people do just fine self-optimizing their tax bill and banking that money right smack where they live.
But what do I know? I could be missing a lot here. Still I do wonder… Are there any studies that show whether a state would gain more revenue by going after offshore accounts versus, say, auditing 50% of small business owners?
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