Greetings to all,
We really got motivated by the Toronto meeting last Saturday (January 25) and are expanding our resoures to include our own Meetup Group.
Please join and it would probably be helpful to keep your same handle/moniker etc.
This is a good opportunity to help us get the word out to more and more of those who are stuck, or still don’t even know what is happening.
Thanks,
Tricia/nobledreamer
http://www.meetup.com/American-Expats-Abroad/events/162765622/
Nigel Green, CEO of the deVere Group, and a frequent critic of FATCA, calls the RNC resolution “a step in the direction of common sense”, as reported by Robin Amlôt in CPI Financial:
The Republican National Committee (RNC) voted Friday to adopt a resolution to repeal the US law, which is purportedly aimed at cracking down on tax evasion. Green, whose firm has more than 70,000 clients worldwide, including many American expatriates, said, “The RNC’s vote to support the repeal of this damaging law, that was slipped into the 2010 HIRE Act and wasn’t reviewed properly by Congress, is a step in the right direction for common sense.
“I hope that this heralds the start of the critical review that FATCA should have already been subject to, which has not taken place to date; plus the start of a national and international conversation on this immensely important issue – again something, that has to date not yet taken place.
“The Republicans’ bold stance is part of a groundswell of anti-FATCA feeling in Washington and beyond and, to my mind, it represents real progress in the fightback against a law that has a host of serious unintended adverse consequences.
“FATCA is hugely expensive to implement – costs that will surely be passed on to the public – and highly ineffective. It will do little, if anything at all, to tackle the serious challenge of offshore tax evasion as it does not actively target tax cheats. Instead it relies upon a ‘dragnet approach’ to haul in the personal financial information of millions of ordinary Americans – the vast majority of whom are not suspected of owing taxes – on the off chance they happen across some illegally hidden assets.
“All Americans should be concerned about FATCA because it will reduce foreign investment in the U.S. thereby threatening American jobs, fuel the likelihood of tax hikes, increase consumer costs for dealings with banks and other financial institutions, potentially damage important international trade relations, and it will – and already is – turning American citizens who live and/or work outside the US, and American firms operating globally, into financial pariahs.”
The RNC’s vote to back a FATCA repeal follows Senator Rand Paul’s opposition last year when he introduced legislation, citing privacy concerns, to have parts of the controversial law scrapped. FATCA, which the Obama administration intends to implement from 1 July 2014, requires every single financial institution in the world to report all their American clients’ financial activities directly to the US Internal Revenue Service (IRS), or be subject to a 30 per cent withholding tax.
February 3, 2014 UPDATE: Urgent:
Public submissions can be made from anywhere in the world. All that is required is a name, email address and phone number. But you will have to be quick as the link will be closed at midnight on Wed 5th Feb New Zealand time. (That is actually 3 AM the morning of Feb 5th on the West Coast of America.)
I hope you will find time to express your opinion to them. It is very much appreciated. The link is here:
http://www.parliament.nz/en-nz/pb/sc/make-submission/50SCFE_SCF_00DBHOH_BILL12926_1/taxation-annual-rates-employee-allowances-and-remedial (scroll down to “make an online submission”)
Plainly put, FATCA is more Stealth in New Zealand than in America.
Osgood has provided us good informational analysis of the pending Legislation for New Zealand to capitulate without a fight to the FATCA IGA.
This inspired a good article at The New American but nothing in New Zealand media. The last article I have seen is this at Interest.co.nz from November.
The Ministery of Revenue has NO IDEA OF THE COST of what they are doing, or HOW MANY U.S. PERSONs in New Zealand! Nor, do they or the Ministry of Justice seem to care. All they care about is finding a way legislatively to comply. Banks want their bailout, and the government is determined to give it to them, it would seem. Let ALL Kiwi bank customers pay the cost.
Osgood has recently sent an email plea for submissions from over seas, as when it comes to media coverage in New Zealand, FATCA is operating like a Secret CIA covert operation that the citizenry is unaware of.
See below for his request for help. Submissions are easy to do! They are due by February 4th, USA time. Continue reading
I am happy to call your attention to an excellent post by our friend Jim Jatras on his Repeal FATCA website. This post is aimed at Americans in the US, and I think it’s important for you to forward this link to any friends and family you might have in the US. Jim’s post is a calm rebuttal of the wild claims the Democrats are making that the Republican National Committee is committed to letting “tax cheats” off the hook, and in the vitriolic political atmosphere in the US, it’s important that calm, reasoned and moderate statements like this get some attention. He makes some very telling points about how this law got through Congress with no debate or committee study. Sounds sadly familiar in Ottawa these days, unfortunately …
The link is here
http://www.repealfatca.com/index.asp?idmenu=4&title=News&idsubmenu=146
The following information is important for several reasons. First, this correspondence was in French and is the first on FATCA that I personally have seen in that language. I think it is vital that Canadians understand the FATCA and IGA issues affect ALL Canadians no matter which of our official languages they speak (and no matter their ethnic or national origin). Second, M. Bélanger is a Liberal MP (from Ottawa-Vanier), and his response makes it clear that, even though perhaps Justin Trudeau either doesn’t understand the issues or can’t articulate them accurately and quickly on his feet, some of his caucus clearly do “get it.”
I am posting the following at the request of “Premier Juillet” and in consultation with him. I have met him in person. I am posting the original correspondence in French, followed by a translation of M. Bélanger’s letter as provided to me by “Premier Juillet.”
Premier Juillet wrote to me (Schubert): “I finally got a reply to my multiple reminders since a letter I sent in June to my Liberal deputé. I think it was worth the wait. They have done their research and I guess they had more to say because of the recent questions by Hsu/Brison. I hope they can now educate their Leader, and fast!
“Merci beaucoup Monsieur le député Belangé!
“Premier Juillet”
This document — US Citizens Living in Canada — Income Tax Considerations dated February 2013 — just floated up out of the surf. This may be old hat. It may be new hat for a newbie. In any case, FWIW. Here’s a link to the 6-page fancy pdf:
http://www.bmo.com/pdf/nesbitt/USCitizensLivingInCanada_Eng%20-%20BMO%20NB.pdf
A follow-up article from Patrick Temple-West at Reuters:
http://blogs.wsj.com/riskandcompliance/2014/01/24/republican-party-backs-fatca-repeal-resolution/
Some highlights:
Jan 24 (Reuters) – The Republican National Committee (RNC) on Friday called for the repeal of a U.S. anti-tax-evasion law, siding with big banks, libertarians and American expatriates that have criticized the Obama administration statute.
At its winter meeting in Washington, the RNC approved by voice vote a resolution in favor of abolishing the 2010 Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA), set to take effect in July, marking the party’s first explicit attack on the law.
FATCA will require most foreign banks and investment funds to report to the U.S. Internal Revenue Service information about U.S. customers’ accounts worth $50,000 or more. The law was enacted after a scandal involving Americans hiding assets in Swiss bank accounts to dodge U.S. taxes.
Critics have blasted the law as an unfair government overreach and invasion of financial privacy.
“The Republican National Committee … urges the U.S. Congress to repeal FATCA,” said the measure, staking out a campaign position ahead of 2014’s mid-term elections.
On Wednesday, with the RNC vote expected to occur, a senior Treasury Department official said the vote would not hurt the administration’s efforts to implement FATCA via a web of tax information-sharing agreements with other countries.
http://www.ctj.org/taxjusticedigest/archive/2014/01/republican_platform_expected_t.php#.UuIfC_2Cokg
More uninformed nonsense from the useful idiot wing of the FATCA camp:
Those who are directly affected by FATCA are likely to be few in number and they certainly have the means to fill out the disclosure form required with their federal income tax return under its provisions. The $50,000 threshold excludes housing and other non-financial assets. That means that even a relatively well-off American who works for a few years abroad and even someone who owns a house abroad will not be affected unless they hold over $50,000 in cash or financial assets in the other country.
Whatever inconvenience is caused by these requirements is far outweighed by the benefits to the U.S. and its law abiding taxpayers. According to the Congressional Joint Committee on Taxation (JCT), FATCA’s anti-tax evasion measures are estimated to raise $8.7 billion (PDF) over their first decade of implementation. (JCT does have a history of underestimating tax enforcement measures.) Considering that the U.S. loses an estimated $100 billion (PDF) annually due to offshore tax abuses, this seems like a modest reform.
Other opponents of FATCA, like the Wall Street Journal, have claimed that it is causing Americans living abroad to renounce their U.S. citizenship, but as we have pointed out, those renouncing citizenship make up a tiny fraction of one percent of the six million Americans living abroad.
Brian Mahany is “a bit miffed by a recent story in Canada’s CBC News criticizing FATCA.”
In his latest article at TaxConnections World-wide Tax Blogs titled CBC Distorts FATCA Facts Brian writes:
There is a tremendous amount of misinformation circulating about FATCA and the requirement for US taxpayers to report foreign financial accounts. Some of the media horror stories are so bad that many taxpayers are simply too afraid to come into compliance. Add a few boneheaded mistakes by the IRS and one has a sea of uncertainty. For some folks, that means anxiety and bad decisions.
According to Brian, CBC’s “recent article on FATCA has several factual inaccuracies and takes editorial license too far. ” Brian dispels these so-called inaccuracies with his own version of the facts: Continue reading
Some Americans disturb me. Yesterday, a commenter told me to eff-off on my timeline on Facebook. I had expressed opinions at Think Progress that he didn’t appreciate so he came over and told me to eff myself (but he used the real f-word). Later he took down his comment. Still, we cannot judge an entire country on the basis of isolated trolls on the internet, who may only be interested in writing offensive comments in order to piss you off. However, some months ago, I received from a former US government employee a private email that mocked me because I am a Christian. Of course, this same man also scorned my views on his own blog (without mentioning me or the Isaac Brock Society by name), but to take it to the level of sending me a taunt to my personal email is somehow barbaric. This former government employee undoubtedly has a very high opinion of himself. But why do these Americans drop the level of conversation to a child’s game, whereby they get their five-year old jollies? The man that told me to eff-off on Facebook claimed that he represented the majority of Americans, judging by the last two presidential elections. So alleged US persons, please meet your persecutor: the Obama voter.
