The move will enable Beijing to obtain information on mainland Chinese taxpayers in the US, which will help in its fight against tax evasion and corruption.
“It is important, as China was seen as the last major outlier in reaching an IGA with the US,” said Charles Kinsley, a China tax partner at accounting firm KPMG. “Most major economies have negotiated an IGA, either formally or in principle.”
Eric Boes, an international tax consultant at the trust company Amicorp, said: “I can imagine Beijing will want information on Chinese taxpayers abroad. A possible reason is that the government wants information on corrupt Chinese officials.”
Really? Do the Chinese actually believe that the US, the world’s greatest tax haven, is going to hand-over any more banking information about their nationals than they have to the Russians, any number of Central or South American countries or, for that matter, any of the signatories to FATCA worldwide, including Canada? While the US may have gleefully yanked Switzerland’s banking secrecy culture out by its roots it sure isn’t about to do the same thing to Delaware or Nevada or Texas or Florida. It is simply laughable to pretend otherwise.
Yet plenty of pretending has been going on worldwide. We know that reciprocity is a lie, yet every single article and press release trumpeting yet another FATCA deal includes this easily-refuted canard. Is there something else going on behind the scenes that we simply haven’t figured-out? With only four sleeps left until FATCA ignites, are we truly witnessing the birth of a nightmarish One World Government ruled by a despotic America or is this more like a game of high-stakes poker where every player is badly bluffing – except maybe China?
