Wish I’d seen this sooner but Justin Trudeau is answering questions live this afternoon at 4 pm edt. You can log in and ask a question. Maybe about FATCA progress or what the government response might be in banks in Canada start shunning Canadians with dual US citizenship. Or anything else really.
Category Archives: Issues regarding US persons abroad
#FATCA: A Tool of the Electronic Surveillance State
This is a repost of James George Jatras for RepealFATCA.com . It is a recent distribution email sent to the various media sources, was posted on his web site and has been mentioned in various IBS threads. It is pulled out here for greater visibility. Please circulate.
September 16, 2013
Washington, DC
Financial Data Provided to ‘Intel’ Agencies Considered ‘Not Inherently Confidential’ under U.S. Law
Those familiar with the U.S. “Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act” (FATCA) – and in the United States, that’s not many people – think of it as either ….
1. A sledgehammer attempt to curb “offshore tax evasion” or (more accurately) as
2. A costly, counterproductive, and indiscriminate burden on the global economic system;
3. A compliance nightmare that only benefits tax lawyers, accountants, and software firms;
4. A job-killing disincentive for foreign investment in the United States;
5. A crude extraterritorial overreach in violation of every principle of sovereign legality;
6. An abuse of the U.S. Senate’s constitutional treaty authority;
7. A blatant violation of WTO and other trade commitments; and
8. A financial “drone strike” against Americans living abroad.
FATCA is all that and much, MUCH more. Continue reading
@RepealFATCA – #FATCA: a Tool of the Electronic Surveillance State
# FATCA: a Tool of the Electronic Surveillance State http://t.co/NsYc4PBhjv – From @RepealFATCA
— U.S. Citizen Abroad (@USCitizenAbroad) September 17, 2013
This post comes from James Jatras at RepealFATCA.com
Those familiar with the U.S. “Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act” (FATCA) – and in the United States, that’s not many people – think of it as either a as sledgehammer attempt to curb “offshore tax evasion” or (more accurately) as a costly, counterproductive, and indiscriminate burden on the global economic system; a compliance nightmare that only benefits tax lawyers, accountants, and software firms; a job-killing disincentive for foreign investment in the United States; a crude extraterritorial overreach in violation of every principle of sovereign legality; an abuse of the U.S. Senate’s constitutional treaty authority; a blatant violation of WTO and other trade commitments; and a financial “drone strike” against Americans living abroad.
Our “foreign accounts” in the countries where we live: Banking Lockout — solution for the Banks; devastating for ‘Americans Abroad’
CNN Money — Banks lock out Americans over new tax law
Americans, take your money elsewhere!
That’s what banks around the world have been telling their U.S. customers, as they try to avoid having to comply with a new tax law due to come into force next year.
… only a small sample of banks that are refusing to do business with Americans, who now face a “banking lockout problem,” said Marylouise Serrato, executive director of American Citizens Abroad.
#Americansabroad in Canada may soon be unable to receive payments from Government
This post appeared on the RenounceUScitizenship blog
#Americansabroad in Canada may soon be unable to receive payments from Government http://t.co/5eikEu9NXV
— U.S. Citizen Abroad (@USCitizenAbroad) September 16, 2013
Update September 17/13:
What began as a simple post describing that the Government of Canada will soon be discontinuing sending cheques took a sharp turn. It quickly became an attempted discussion between:
U.S. citizens abroad desperate to be heard and a compliance lawyer. Although the comments have interesting content, they are more important for what they reveal about attitudes. It’s tough for tax tax chattels Americans abroad to be heard. The compliance lawyer tweeted some of his comments to this thread as follows:
https://twitter.com/dslesperance/status/379620042167418881
https://twitter.com/dslesperance/status/379631572279779328
https://twitter.com/dslesperance/status/379899029678592002
The discussion reminded me of two ships passing in the night – never to meet.
Canada’s Political Parties Disrespect Privacy
A research paper commissioned by the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada concludes:
The current reality is that the parties are managing vast databases within which a variety of sensitive personal information from disparate sources is processed. For the most part, individuals have no legal rights to learn what information is contained therein, to access and correct those data, to remove themselves from the systems, or to restrict the collection, use and disclosure of their personal data. For the most part, parties have no legal obligations to keep that information secure, to only retain it for as long as necessary, and to control who has access to it.
The entire March 2012 paper, Canadian Federal Political Parties and Personal Privacy Protection: A Comparative Analysis, can be viewed at:
http://www.priv.gc.ca/information/research-recherche/2012/pp_201203_e.asp#toc6
Given this failure by dominant Canadian political parties to implement respectable privacy safeguards that restrict their own activities, expectations for maintenance of inconvenient privacy policy in the face of FATCA implementation seem unrealistic.
FATCA’s heavy reliance on Ad Hominems
The following lists some arguments made in defense of FATCA, and this is only the beginning. The attacks against Americans in defense of FATCA will increase. FATCA teaches the American to hate Americans and for all the wrong reasons.
for the little UWFF (“quote“) unfuckable WhiteKat FBAR fraudster it is tick-tack , after you had the guts to come out of hiding and reveal yourself to the IRS and comply with current law we move to tick-tock which you might hear from the inside of a prison cell 1
What a jerk! “ lol……. keep dreaming my little fraudster, the clock is ticking. I am happy that you think in your little pathetic world you “beat the you know what out of him“….. wow please don`t forget to take your pills again. 2
Actually, he’s one of those spoiled self-centered Libertarian brats whining because the rest of the world won’t let him get away with whatever he wants the way his mommy and daddy used to. 3
nobody has a debate here with FBAR fraudsters like yourself – you have to earn that right which you fail by hiding and not complying with the law. Your are a cheat plain and simple who is barely capable of putting a sentence together. Talk to to the IRS and see if they think YOU make sense. 4
yes we know little FBAR fraudster like yourself do not believe in any authority especially when they come after you for not complying with the law. 5
you’re pretty stupid and have a hard time understanding things like politics and government. It’s only a human rights issue if people are denied access to services by government decree. If people cannot access services from the institution of their first choice as a result of a private sector response to a government policy then the denial of service is the result of a corporate policy and cannot be blamed on the government. 6
McQuaig wins NDP nomination in Toronto Centre
The good news is that she will now have to reconcile her FATCA position with the NDP position that FATCA is a fundamental violation of Canadian citizens’ rights! Consider emailing this to her! lmcquaig@sympatico.ca
Why Do They Need FATCA When They Have SWIFT?
The American government’s uber over-reaching and prying into the business of everyone who lives on the planet, American citizen or not, aka the NSA also devotes considerable time to watching over and collecting financial data. That is when they are not stalking their ex-girlfriends, copying your emails and follow your Twitter streams and Facebook pages.
In fact, the NSA spends so much of its time following everyone’s money that they even have an internal division called “Follow The Money” (FTM).
What kind of money?
Credit transactions specifically.
Thanks to their secret insertion in the Brussels based Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (SWIFT), a network that is used by thousands of banks to send information securely, the NSA is effectively able to monitor the credit transactions of basically anyone. Anywhere.
This means that information on any credit purchase whether it be groceries or stocks, and regardless of whether it takes place in Atlanta, Georgia or Georgia the country, is scooped up and stored indefinitely – for purposes unknown – by the United States government.
Given the growing ease with which people conduct transactions that don’t involve physical cash, or even leaving your house, one should wonder just how much financial data Uncle Sam’s spy network has, and why it feels entitled to it.
What does this all mean?
Hard to say. These days the American government is fairly cagey about its reasons for anything, but on the surface it appears as though the United States government will happily steal whatever information on the finances of ordinary people and financial institutions of other countries that it can’t coerce out of them through extra territorial law making schemes like FATCA.
Whatever is going on, it’s not about taxes.
American expats are “offshore tax dodging” “trash”
So, there you have it. According to America, all Americans living abroad are “offshore tax dodgers” since they are taxed where they live to pay for the infrastructure they use.
A poll this year commissioned by the Main Street Alliance and the American Sustainable Business Council found 85 percent of small business owners oppose the “territorial” tax system pushed by offshore tax dodgers. By a margin of more than two to one, small business owners prefer closing corporate tax loopholes over cuts to education, infrastructure or Social Security and Medicare.
It’s time to end offshore tax dodging and close tax loopholes that benefit large corporations and wealthy special interests. Use the revenue to invest in strengthening the economy and creating jobs.
A residency-based tax system is pushed by Americans living abroad and anyone who pushes a residency-based tax system is automatically branded by America as being an “offshore tax dodger”, or “trash” which needs to be thrown away.
Whether you’re a small business owner cleaning restaurants in Billings or a U.S. Senator cleaning up the tax code in D.C., the first step is taking out the trash.
Why does America seek to trash its diaspora? Because it believes that they are pirates sailing around with stolen treasure.
Against this backdrop, some big business titans amazingly have the gall to advocate doubling down on offshore tax dodging, aggressively lobbying for a permanent tax “get-out-of-taxes-free” card on offshore profits — a so-called “territorial” tax system — while backing cuts to Social Security and Medicare that would wreak further havoc on the Main Street economy. In short, small business owners and our customers get trash while corporate pirates sail offshore with the treasure.
I doubt that Gy Moody, the owner of Cleaner Image Janitorial in Billings, Montana, and writer of this article realized that he was advocating for Americans living abroad to be thrown away as “tax cheats”. Yet, the impact of US policy on Americans living abroad has never been an American concern, as one fellow kindly stated to one who does not live in America:
The government is not responsible for actions of private sector organizations. To support a claim of rights violations you have to be able to demonstrate the denials were the result of an order given by a government to not provide services. Claiming that rights are being violated because a bank executive opted not to provide services will not stand up in court. The fact that you didn’t understand that concept, and see how adjusting Federal policy in response to decisions made by Swiss bank executives tells me that you’re pretty stupid and have a hard time understanding things like politics and government. It’s only a human rights issue if people are denied access to services by government decree. If people cannot access services from the institution of their first choice as a result of a private sector response to a government policy then the denial of service is the result of a corporate policy and cannot be blamed on the government.
FATCA: The end of financial privacy
The US government clearly doesn’t give a damn if Americans are harmed as a result of US policy, but it is eager to brand its expats as “tax cheats” and to throw them away as “trash”.